Rock Stars Boxed Set: Murder, Manslaughter and Misadventure

by Joe Bensam

  Cynthia became aware of the new boy in the class when he poked her in the back and asked to borrow a pencil. Over the next few weeks, their relationship mainly consisted of her being poked in the back every time John needed some equipment to complete his lettering task, and she wasn’t particularly impressed. Things didn’t progress much until a discussion in class revealed that both of them were extremely short sighted, as well as feeling very uncomfortable wearing glasses. Then John discovered that she had also lost a parent - her father - the year before, and suddenly they had a great deal of common ground.

  John with Cynthia

  Cynthia, however, already had a steady boyfriend who she intended to marry, so she took little romantic interest in her new friend. Or at least that is what she thought...until one day she felt a pang of jealousy when another girl touched John’s hair, and realized that she had a crush on him. One day, she noticed that John was taking a great deal of interest in a blonde-haired girl who was walking up the stairs ahead of him. She promptly went home to dye her own hair blonde, and to switch her usual dowdy clothes for more sensual and revealing attire.

  Despite his short-sightedness, John noticed the change immediately, and began to take an interest in ‘Miss Powell,’ as he usually jokingly referred to her. She soon became part of the group that frequented Ye Cracke pub, and it wasn’t long before John and Cynthia became lovers, consummating their passion on a mattress at Stu’s Liverpool flat. She became utterly devoted to him, and gave him practically anything that he wanted that was in her power to give. In return, John showed her an intensity of love she had never received before, constantly writing her impassioned notes and letters, ringing her at home and demanding that she spend every hour possible with him. He also became extremely jealous, and was quick to thump any man who dared to go near her - including Stu, when he innocently asked her to dance.

  With The Quarrymen now becoming a serious band, John knew it was time to graduate from his acoustic guitar to an electric one - however, the modest funds they received from gigs came nowhere close to the seemingly vast sum required to buy a decent guitar. But Mimi came to his rescue, and agreed to fork out the down payment of 17 pounds required to purchase a Hofner Club 40 semi-solid electric guitar. John was enthusiastic about his new instrument, but Mimi still had reservations.

  ‘Playing the guitar is all very well, John’ she said. ‘But you’ll never make a living at it.’

  He had a chance to try out his Hofner when The Quarrymen got a regular gig playing at The Casbah, an illegal club run in the basement of a house owned by Mona Best. They also entered for a local talent contest, and decided that a name change was needed, as none of them had any connections with Quarry Bank High any more. After some debate, they went on stage as Johnny and the Moondogs. With George in the line-up, the band now had four guitars - but no bass player, and no drummer. Finding a drummer proved to be a difficult task, but the lack of a bass player was quickly resolved. Stu sold a painting for the extraordinary sum of 55 pounds, and John persuaded him to buy a bass guitar. He had no idea how to play it - but simply owning such an instrument qualified him as a member of the band.

  The name Johnny and the Moondogs stuck only for a short time before the boys decided that a snappier and more memorable name was required. After some fruitless discussion, Stu said that he liked the sound of Buddy Holly’s Crickets, and suggested they consider similar names. This led to someone suggesting The Beetles. John suggested that as they were going to ‘beat’ the competition, they should change the spelling to The Beatles.

  And so the next chapter in musical history was written.

  Chapter 4 - The Road To Hamburg

  When they were not playing themselves, the boys loved to hang out at The Jacaranda, a seedy club that featured some of the best bands in Liverpool. One of their favorites was Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, a tight rock band that was building up a loyal following. Their set even included a special spot for their drummer, Richard Starkey. Like many musicians of the day, Richard had decided to give himself a stage name, based on his fondness for gaudy jewelry.

  He called himself Ringo Starr.

  Ringo in the early days

  The fledgling Beatles got to know Ringo well, with the two bands often performing on the same bill, or turning up to watch each other perform. But at that time, Ringo’s band were at the top of the tree in Liverpool, while The Beatles were still staring up from the bottom. However, their fortunes improved when the manager of the Jacaranda, Alan Williams introduced them to the biggest impressario in the North of England - Larry Parnes. Some time later, Larry Parnes asked them to do a tour of Scotland as the support to one of his acts. The would get them a fee of £18 each, with an older man, Tommy Moore, filling in as drummer. The tour proved to a challenging and traumatic experience, with the boys returning home broke. However, they had learned a lot about performing during their travels, and were now more actively promoted by Alan Williams.

  Alan had his fingers in many pies, and one of these was a deal with a club owner from Hamburg, Germany. The German businessman needed a band to play in his club, and as such talent could not be found locally, he had arranged for Alan to send over one his acts, Derry and The Seniors. This proved to be a success, so some time later, Alan was asked to send another group. The Beatles were the most available candidates, and immediately agreed to go. There was only one problem...they were required to have a drummer. But back at The Casbah, Mona Best’s son Pete had not only acquired a drum kit, but was even able to sustain a beat. The boys briefly auditioned him, hired him on the spot...and the next day set off for Hamburg.

  In August 1960, Hamburg was not the kind of place that parents hoped to send their children. If Mimi had realized exactly what went on in the red-light district of the Reeperbahn, she would have done her best to prevent John from going. Arriving in the small hours of the morning, the Beatles were amazed to find that the Reeperbahn was still a hive of activity...a place that truly never slept. Their initial delight was somewhat tempered when they discovered that were not to play in the same posh club as Derry and The Seniors, but in a dingy strip club. Worse still, their accommodation was a filthy room in an old cinema, with no washing facilities except for the public toilets. And to cap it all, they found that there were required to play four-and-a-half hour marathon sets on weeknights, and up to six hours at weekends.

  The early Beatles in Hamburg

  In order to meet this demanding schedule, The Beatles had to extend their repertoire considerably, adding a vast number of new songs, and learning how to extend a three-minute song into a twenty-minute extravaganza. They would take requests from the audience, and would be rewarded with rounds of beer. Nevertheless, the long nights took a heavy toll, and they were soon introduced to the variety of drugs that other performers used to stay awake throughout their stints.

  But playing in the Reeperbahn brought other benefits that were greatly appreciated by the boys from Liverpool. Situated in the heart of the sex industry of Europe, they were soon besieged by a variety of females - strippers, customers, waitresses and other hangers-on. No seduction was required...the ladies would pick the Beatle they wanted to sleep with by pointing at him, or would simply go backstage and get into one of the beds...waiting for a Beatle - any Beatle - to return and take advantage of the opportunity. John proved to have the biggest sexual appetite of all the band, despite regularly writing passionately to Cynthia and telling her how much he loved her.

  Soon The Beatles were moved from the strip club to the slightly more respectable KaiserKeller, where they were required to play even longer sets. Rory Story and The Hurricates, complete with drummer Ringo, arrived to play in the same club, with the two bands alternating sets through long nights of music, drinking and chaos. Ringo got on well socially with John, Paul and George, with Stu and Pete often choosing to be on the sidelines.

  One night as the bands played in the Kaiserkeller, a young man by the name of Klaus Voorman wandered in for a beer. H
e was so impressed by the sound of The Beatles that he invited his photographer girlfriend, Astrid Kircherr over to check them out. Astrid was duly impressed...but not quite in the way Klaus had expected. Whilst she loved the look and sound of the band overall, it was the James Dean lookalike in the corner - Stu - who captured her attention, and her heart. Astrid offered to take photographs of the band, as a way of building a relationship with Stu, and the project was a great success. Soon Astrid ended her relationship with Klaus, and fell into one with Stu. Barely a month later, they decided to get engaged.

  In the meantime, a new club had opened in Hamburg - The Top Ten. This was the plushest club in the town, and when the owner offered to give the band a residency there, they snapped at the chance - much to the fury of the owner of the Kaiserkeller, who soon found a way to exact revenge. The next day, the police received a tip-off that 17-year-old George was playing illegaly because of his age, with the result that he was arrested and deported back to England. Paul and Pete were soon to follow, being arrested for a starting a minor fire when leaving the Kaiserkeller.

  For once, John was the only member of the band who did not get into trouble. But with no band to play with, he had no option to make the long trek back to England, and home to Mendips.

  After a few weeks spent recovering from their disastrous exit from Europe, The Beatles started gigging again in Liverpool. And the ragtag of customers who saw them play were astonished at the performance. The average Liverpool band that had left for Hamburg had now been replaced with battle-hardened veterans who knew how to make a show, and how to play loudly enough to demand attention. Soon amazed patrons were leaving the bars of the clubs to pack close to the stage and enjoy this multi-sensual adventure.

  As the band became more popular, they needed proper transport to get to gigs, and someone to take on the responsibility of driver. They hired Neil Aspinall, a trainee accountant who was already a friend and nascent Beatles fan, to drive them around in his red-and-white van. The only fly in the ointment was the growing realization that Stu’s bass playing was simply not up to the standard of the rest of the band. Always a reluctant musician, he often played with his back to the audience, so that no-one could see that he had no idea what he was playing.

  The good news, however, was that the band had found a regular venue to play. A local basement club, the Cavern, had opened up to for lunchtime shows designed to attract the office workers and shop assistants who worked in their thousands in the surrounding area. As The Beatles were not encumbered by daytime jobs, they were the perfect fit for the Cavern...and the Cavern was perfect for them.

  The Beatles rock the Cavern

  The Beatles first appearance took place in February 1961, earning them the princely sum of £5. Their lunchtime gigs became increasingly popular, and soon people - mostly young ladies - were forming long lines outside the Cavern at 1.00pm every day. The boys played confused and complicated sets comprised of every rock & roll classic they knew, plus many other songs swiped from any other kind of music that took their fancy. They experimented with a few Lennon & McCartney ballads, but it wasn’t what the fans had come to hear. Onstage, the Beatles were loud, leather-jacketed and informal - eating and drinking between songs, joking around and generally having a good time. When the gig was over, all five had their pick of the dozens of adoring females that crowded around them.

  However, the fans were soon to be disappointed, as the Beatles were invited back to Hamburg to play at The Top Ten Club, the various immigration difficulties having been smoothed over. George was now 18 and able to play legally, and soon the band were in residence in Hamburg alongside singer Tony Sheridan. Their Hamburg fans, including Astrid and Klaus, flocked to see them, and Stu was able to continue his relationship with the beautiful Astrid.

  A dedicated follower of fashion, Astrid decided to give Stu’s style a makeover, and that included a new hairstyle. She combed his hair forward over his forehead, in the French fashion. When Stu turned up at the club, everyone initially laughed at him. But a few days later, the rest of the band asked Astrid if she could style their hair in the same way. And so the moptop look was born. But this contribution apart, Stu was spending less and time with The Beatles, and more time on resuming his career as an artist. George and Paul became resentful of the fact that Stu still could not play well, and that he showed little inclination to improve. As he became more passionate about his art, Stu also started to suffer severe headaches that grew in frequency as time went on.

  Chapter 5 - On Track For Success

  The most significant event of the second Hamburg trip was the first professional Beatles recording. Acting as the backing band to Tony Sheridan, a local entrepreneur recorded them playing ‘My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean’ and a few other songs. The recording was notable for the fact that Paul took over the bass playing role, relegating Stu merely becoming an onlooker. But The Beatles didn’t even get a credit in their own name, being billed alongside Tony Sheridan as The Beat Brothers. This turned out to be final episode in Stu’s association with The Beatles. He decided to stay on in Hamburg permanently, to marry Astrid and continue his career as an artist.

  The record was not a success, and by the time The Beatles had finished their second stint in Hamburg and returned to Liverpool, it was all but forgotten...yet not quite. One day, a young man walked into NEMS record store in Liverpool, and asked for a copy of ‘My Bonnie’ by The Beatles. The shop manager, Brian Epstein, was puzzled that he couldn’t find the record - hardly surprising as it had been recorded overseas under a different name. But Brian took pride in giving the best possible service to his customers, and set out to track the record down. He was surprised to find that The Beatles were in fact a Liverpool band - and that they regularly played a few streets away at The Cavern. Intrigued, Brian decided to check the band out, and so he dropped into The Cavern one day to watch them perform.

  Brian Epstein brought a whole new era of professionalism

  It is hard to imagine anyone more opposite in character to the leather-clad rockers who swore and fooled around on stage. Brian came from a middle-class Jewish background, and was very much a gentleman. Refined and aloof, he was also a closet homosexual - something that had to be kept very much hidden in the tough world of Liverpool in the 60s. He usually spent his free time in fine restaurants and listening to classical music, so the scenes he saw in the Cavern were something of a shock to the system.

  Yet Brian was also impressed and intrigued by what he saw. He immediately recognized that amongst the rude jokes and antics, there was a great deal of raw musical talent and showmanship just waiting to be harnessed. He astonished the boys by telling them that he was interested in becoming their manager. A short time later, the deal was done, and Brian set about transforming the local beat group into superstars.

  His first priority was to get them to clean up their act. No more eating sandwiches on stage, turning up wearing whatever they fancied or drinking while they played. From now on, they were to become professionals...and that meant wearing suits. The boys had a few reservations about this, but Brian won them over with the promise of great success to come.

  Next he set to work on getting them a record deal, and on New Year’s Day 1962, Neil drove them all to London to audition for Decca. The boys recorded 15 tracks, and then went home to wait for news from the record company management. When it came, the news was not good. They had been turned down, because: ‘guitar groups are on the way out.’ Brian was not discouraged though, and continued to hawk his Beatles tapes to every record company and promoter in London, but with no success. He remained upbeat, and so did The Beatles. ‘Where are we going, fellas?’ he would ask the rest of the band. ‘To the top, Johnny,’ they replied. ‘And where’s that?’ ‘To the toppermost of the poppermost!.’

  Luck then lent a hand when Brian took his tapes into a HMV store in London in order to get copies made. The technician who performed the copying was impressed by what he heard, and called a contact in the music
industry, who in turned called a producer friend, George Martin. Soon George and Brian were discussing the Beatles, and George agreed that they should audition for him. At first glance, George did not seem to be the obvious choice for the producer of a pop group. As middle class as Brian, he was trained in classical music and his recording career had largely consisted of producing comedy records. Yet ironically, this turned out to be an ideal background - his muscal knowledge plus his understanding of how to record live performances was exactly what was required.

  George Martin at Abbey Road Studios with the Beatles

  While Brian negotiated with George to arrange an audition, The Beatles returned to Hamburg for their next stint in Germany. But they arrived to tragic news - learning that Stu had died from a brain hemorrhage the day before. Once John had recovered from the shock of losing his close friend, the band took up residence in the new Star Club. Now they were better paid than ever before, and enjoyed respectable accommodation. They played their way through Spring, and just as the Hamburg trip was coming to a end, they received a telegram from Brian. George Martin had finally agreed to an audition date in June.

  The audition went well, with George allowing the band to record some Lennon McCartney originals along with some classics. But there was a problem. George Martin took Brian to one side and told him that Pete’s drumming was not good enough for the recording, and that he wanted to bring a session drummer in to replace him for future recordings. When George, Paul and John heard this, it was the final nail in the coffin for Pete’s career as a Beatle. For some time, they had been uneasy about his presence in the group, as he had never fitted in with them socially. On a few occasions, Ringo had sat in for Pete when he had been unavailable, and the others had been impressed by the improvement he brought to their sound. So now they decided it was time for a personnel change. Ringo accepted an invitation to join The Beatles, and Brian was given the unenviable job of telling Pete that his services were no longer required.