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Pete Best

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Pete Best

Randolph Peter Best (born 24 November 1941 in Madras, India) is a British musician, best known as the original drummer for The Beatles.

Early years

Pete Best is the son of Mona Best, who was the owner of the Casbah Club, which was in the basement of their home in Liverpool, where The Beatles later played.[1][2]

During 1961-1962, Neil Aspinall became good friends with Best and subsequently rented a room in the house where Best lived with his parents. During one of the extended business trips of Best's father, Aspinall became romantically involved with Mona, who was 20 years his senior. Aspinall fathered a child by Mona: Vincent "Roag" Best, who is Best's half-brother.[3]

The Beatles

Best was first invited to join for a 1960 residency in Hamburg.[1] The Beatles first played at the Indra club, sleeping in small, dirty rooms in the Bambi Kino, and then moved (after the closure of the Indra) to the larger Kaiserkeller.[4] In October 1960, they left Koschmider's club and worked at the "Top Ten Club", which was run by Peter Eckhorn.[5][6] When McCartney and Best went back to the Bambi Kino to get their belongings they found it in almost total darkness. As a snub to Koschmider, they found a condom, attached it to a nail on the concrete wall of their room, and set fire to it. There was no real damage, but Koschmider reported them both for attempted arson. McCartney and Best spent three hours in a local jail and were deported, as was George Harrison, for working under the legal age limit.[7]

The reunited Beatles returned to Hamburg in April 1961. Whilst playing at the Top Ten Club they were recruited by singer Tony Sheridan to act as his backing band on a series of recordings for the German Polydor Records label, produced by famed bandleader Bert Kaempfert.[8][9] Kaempfert signed the group to its own Polydor contract at the first session on 22 June 1961. On 31 October Polydor released the recording "My Bonnie (Mein Herz ist bei dir nur)", which appeared on the German charts under the name "Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers", a generic name used for whoever happened to be in Sheridan's backup band.[10]

Dismissal

The Beatles played a Parlophone audition at Abbey Road Studios for George Martin in 1962, which convinced Martin that the group was good enough to be signed to a contract, but with one exception: Martin and his recording engineer did not like Best's playing.[11] (Martin used Andy White on the third session for "Love Me Do" 11 September).[12]

When the group heard that Martin did not like Best's playing, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison asked Epstein to fire Best from the band. Epstein agonised about the decision, and asked Bob Wooler if it was a good idea, to which Wooler replied that Best was very popular with the fans and they wouldn't like it at all.[13] Ringo Starr took Best's place, as Starr had previously played with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and had previously stepped in to drum with them when Best was ill or unable to play.[11]

File:Best Sutcliffe and Harrison.jpg
Best, Sutcliffe, and Harrison in 1960.

After Best's sacking by Epstein on 16 August 1962, Aspinall was waiting downstairs in Epstein's NEMS record shop, and was the first one to talk to the (then) ex-Beatle in The Grapes pub, across from The Cavern.[14] Aspinall was furious and said that he would stop working for them as well, but Best strongly advised him not to. Aspinall decided to stay, but ended his relationship with Mona Best (and his three-week-old baby, Roag). Aspinall asked McCartney and Lennon at the next concert why they had fired Best and was told, "It’s got nothing to do with you—you’re only the driver." [15]

Reasons

While John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison usually spent their offstage time together, practicing their music or socialising, Best generally went off alone. He therefore was not privy to many of the group's experiences, references, in-jokes and developing sense of style.[16] When the group adopted the mop-top-style Beatle haircut, Best did not follow suit. In a 1995 BBC Radio Merseyside interview Astrid Kirchherr explained this by saying,

My boyfriend, Klaus Voorman, had this hairstyle, and Stuart [Sutcliffe] liked it very, very much. He was the first one who really got the nerve to get the Brylcreem out of his hair, and asking me to cut his hair for him. ... Pete Best has really curly hair, and it wouldn't work.[17]

When word of Best's replacement broke in Liverpool (through outlets like Mersey Beat), many Beatles' fans were upset, and one gave Harrison a black eye. Many female fans considered Best to be the band's best-looking member – and at many early shows, Best had his own group of female fans present in the audience. Fans would cheer "Pete forever, Ringo never!"

Pop historian and BBC Radio Merseyside presenter Spencer Leigh wrote a book chronicling Best's sacking reiterating Mersey Beat's report that during the Teenagers' Turn showcase, John, Paul and George made their entrance on stage to cheers and applause, but when Pete walked on, the fans went wild. In Manchester his popularity was assured by his looks alone. Pete was mobbed at the stage door afterwards while the other members boarded a charabanc, after signing a few autographs. McCartney's father Jim was present at this incident and admonished Best: "Why did you have to attract all the attention? Why didn't you call the other lads back? I think that was very selfish of you." McCartney's father rubbed salt into the wounds of the dismissed Best in the Cavern Club when a Beatles' gig was being recorded for the ITV series Know the North. "Great, isn't it! They're on TV!" Observers reported that Best bit his tongue, and quietly left.[18]

Best later filed a libel suit against The Beatles, because Starr implied in an interview with Playboy magazine that Best had been fired because he was a drug user. The suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

After The Beatles

File:Pete Best in Hamburg.jpg
Best in Hamburg, 1960 (photo by Astrid Kirchherr).

A few days after he was sacked, Epstein tried to console Best by offering to build another group around him, but Best was not interested. Best joined Lee Curtis & the All Stars, which then broke off from Curtis and became Pete Best & the All Stars. They signed to Decca Records—who had previously rejected The Beatles, signing the Tremeloes instead—and released the single "I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door", which flopped.

Best relocated to the United States (with songwriters Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington from the Remo Four) and formed the Pete Best Four, which recorded for small record labels. In early 1965, personnel changes increased the group's size to five, calling themselves the Pete Best Combo. They toured the United States with their combination of 1950s songs and originals but had little success; having no hit records in England or major label promotion in the United States. Finally, they released an album on Cameo Records titled, "Best Of The Beatles" (a play on Best's name, leading to disappointment for record buyers who expected a Beatles' compilation). They disbanded not long after. (Bickerton and Waddington later had success as songwriters in the 1970s with a series of hits for the Rubettes.)

Best decided to leave show business, and in Hunter Davies' 1968 authorised Beatles' biography, he was portrayed as both somewhat bitter but also unwilling to talk further about or otherwise cash in on his Beatles' associations. Best became a baker, earning £8 a week and marrying a girl named Kathy who worked at the biscuit counter at Woolworth's. He later became a civil servant.

Later years

In time, Best began giving interviews to the media, wrote about his time with The Beatles, and served as a technical advisor for the television movie Birth of The Beatles. Thus, Best eventually found a modicum of independent fame, and toured as leader of the Pete Best Band. In this public role, Best is uniquely positioned to gratify the many fans who are fascinated with the Beatles' early days. He has admitted to being a fan of their music, and owning their records. [19]

When the surviving Beatles released their Anthology in 1995, which featured a number of tracks with Best as drummer, Best received a substantial windfall — apparently between £1 million and £4 million — from the sales.[citation needed] Some have speculated that Apple Records head Neil Aspinall, who reportedly remains friendly with Best, saw to it that Best would be compensated. (Aspinall had an affair with Best's mother, Mona, in the early 1960s, and Best's half-brother, Roag, is Aspinall's son.) Unfortunately, some aspects of the project also seemed to perpetuate the band's legacy of insult with regard to Best. He was not interviewed for the book or the television documentaries, and later disputed a statement by former bandmate Harrison in which Harrison claimed he remembered Best missing several live gigs, with his future replacement, Starr, sitting in for the night (this is documented to have occurred on at least one occasion). His image on an early group photo used on the cover was prominently and purposefully obscured by a cut-out of Starr, contrasting with the cover collage's inclusion of fellow former early Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe's portrait. (However, Best is visible in another, less prominent, photo also appearing on the cover.) Additionally, "Ain't She Sweet," one of the early tracks included on the compilation album to feature Best on drums, was presented in its 1964 U.S. mono single mix, which had been remixed (by Atlantic Records for release on its Atco label) with another studio drummer playing over Best's original drumming. But Best persevered, and recently has appeared in a television special built around him titled Best Of The Beatles, telling his life story.

Notes

  1. ^ a b Miles. p57.
  2. ^ Photos of The Casbah Club
  3. ^ Cynthia Lennon – “John” 2006. p44.
  4. ^ Miles 1998. pp57-8.
  5. ^ Cynthia Lennon “John” 2006. p93.
  6. ^ Miles 1998. pp71-72.
  7. ^ Miles 1998. pp72-73.
  8. ^ Cynthia Lennon “John” 2006. p97.
  9. ^ null
  10. ^ Spitz 2005. p.250
  11. ^ a b Miles 1998. p90
  12. ^ Spitz 2005. p353
  13. ^ Spitz 2005. p329
  14. ^ Spitz 2005. p331
  15. ^ Aspinall, The Beatles and money - Mersey Beat Retrieved: 11 February 2007
  16. ^ The Sacking Of Pete Best iol.ie/~beatlesireland - Retrieved: 31 May 2007
  17. ^ Kirchherr's interview on BBC Radio Merseyside's 500th "On The Beat" programme (Saturday 26 August 1995) members.aol.com - Retrieved: 21 May 2007
  18. ^ Clayson, Alan. Paul McCartney: Sanctuary Publishing Limited, 2003. ISBN 1-86074-482-6
  19. ^ Pete Best interview, from retrosellers.com

References

  • Leigh, Spencer (1998). Drummed Out: The Sacking of Pete Best. Northdown. ISBN 1-9007-1104-4. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  • Lennon, Cynthia (2006). John. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-89828-3. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  • Miles, Barry (1998). Many Years From Now. Vintage-Random House. ISBN 0-7493-8658-4. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  • An episode of The Armando Iannucci Shows featured Armando's barber telling him about the Bootleg Beatles, how the Bootleg Pete Best was annoyed at being left out of the band, and how the Bootleg John Lennon was shot by the Bootleg Mark David Chapman.
  • In the Gilmore Girls episode "One's got class and the other one dyes," Lane Kim is asked "not to be our Pete Best" when attempting to leave the band.
  • In an episode of The Sopranos, Carmella explains to A.J. that Pete Best was the original drummer for the band.
  • In an episode of The Critic, Jeremy's sister tells Jay of all the men she has slept with. The list included "Pete Best - he was the worst."

Multimedia

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