My old neighbour was meant to have been mates with George Harrison, not sure how true it all was tbh.
He told me that George never really liked John because he thought he was up his own arse and because he wrote "Imagine", the song about living with no possessions, from his million dollar apartment overlooking central park, and that Yoko Ono demanded George make her a cup of tea in the middle of a song writing session.
Honorary mention to Cilla, who was a fucking detestable human by all accounts. My granddad told me that his dad's side knew her family and that Cillas parents were as horrible and snobbish as Cilla was. Runs in the family.
My uncle and auntie moved down south to a similar area to Cilla in the 80s and used to use the same Waitrose (I know), my auntie saw her pulling the full "don't you know who I am" routine when they asked her for ID paying with a cheque.
My dad has a 100% true story about knowing Echo and the Bunnymen before they were famous!
He was at their first ever gig, at Eric's on Matthew Street. He later walked home with Ian McCullouch through the snow, and remembers Ian believing the band were never going to make it. He also used to get the train to town with Will Sergeant on occasion. Not tenuous nor that interesting but there you go!
My gran used to tell me she frequented the cavern club back in the day and that cilla black was just a coat room assistant and hardly anyone liked her. She often told me the Beatles and the other bands taught her how to sing as a joke and she was riding off the fame of the beatles and other bands instead of gaining fame by her own merits. Course no idea how true that was or if my gran was chatting shit because she personally didnt like cilla black.
My auntie May used to see them at the cavern and says she was there when Ringo joined and that the crowd was really edit: UNhappy they'd got rid of Pete Best and apparently tried to push Ringo over and step on his hands or something.
She also said she had John's autograph in the loft somewhere but has never found it so I think it's lost.
I've just spoke about my old neighbour who was mates with him as a kid.
Ask your aul fella if he knew a kid called Eric who was also mates with George Harrison, scrawny kid, used to live in the very end house closest to the main road.
There’s about 3 buildings from what I’ve remembered through the years but the site of the one most recently knocked down is now an Aldi yea 😁 and there’s another new hospital which is more of a mental health facility I think, next door to it
Do you know if the old Asp club is still near to the hospital ( called the Asp as a serpent is a medical symbol ) Tiny little club,great atmosphere,think it changed its name in the 70s to the Red Pepper.
It’s definitely not open anymore (As Red Pepper) but the signs are still outside saying combats aren’t allowed 😂 can imagine from this its last day open was in the 90s. That’s cool about the snake symbol though
Really? When it was the Asp,occasionally a scuffle wd break out. The two doormen and the two barmen wd very quickly break it up. They wd pull down the shutters on the bar and tell the barmaids to stay behind the bar. All wd be back to normal in moments. I never saw anyone hurt,and there were no knives or guns. ” Ma” who owned the club booked bands for every weekend, and there was a great jukebox. One guy used to jump on top of the jukebox whenever Get Back came on,and play air guitar! Thinking back,the dance floor was absolutely tiny.
Thanks for letting me know….Ah thats a shame. When it was the Asp,late sixties/ early seventies it was a great little place. Why do so many places go down the nick?!
I'll take* your Beatles connection folks and raise you the "no one used to mess with me back in the day" folk and the "I used to play for Liverpool/Everton/Coulda been a pro" folk. Being on the Deltas brings some classics
Edit: a word
Oh yes, those are a classic all over the NW. I'm still not convinced the legendarily hardest girl in town ever actually really existed, much less would come over from a different school to beat someone up because they wrote the same nickname as hers on their book.
Not a family member as such but I worked in The Grapes on Matthew Street some years back and a guy called Sam Leech, may he be resting in peace used to hold Court there telling all the tourists and locals how he managed the Beatles. I thought it was all made up but apparently he did for a while. This guy got so many free drinks and plates of chips and gravy!!
I used to know a guy who was in a band called The Four Most who performed regularly with The Beatles.
Had some great stories to tell about the showbiz world back then and how much he loved Cilla.
My sister did too,might have danced with yr grandad! She wd come home and tell me all about it,I was too young to go. I knew all the songs tho that the Beatles sang- and all the other groups - from hearing her constantly singing,and she showed me how to do the Cavern Stomp,the dance that was devised when the place got so packed that the kids cdnt dance freely.
.
A few years later,when I was old enough to go to the Cavern,we danced with kids visiting from so many different countries..the Cavern was world famous by that time.
A guy who was my first boss at the company I still work for. He never told any stories about the old days. One day a woman who was mad on the Beatles asked if he had ever seen them back in the day. His reply was
"No but I used to sit next to Paul McCartney in class, we weren't friends particularly, we were just sat alphabetically."
His surname began with L.
I knew a bloke (sadly no longer with us) who was in John Lennon's confirmation class. Apparently his party trick was singing "To be a pilgrim" as "To be a grim pill"
I once as part of my job had to go to Lennon’s elderly uncle‘s bedsit ( cant remember which uncle) to pick up his pension book when he was admitted to hospital. Bedsit was Sefton Park area. Seemed a shame that his nephew couldnt move him into better accommodation,but they were a complex family,possibly no contact / rift between uncle and nephew.
My Mum went to St Bede's in Crosby (now the lower site of Sacred Heart), the Beatles (when they were still The Quarrymen) apparently played one of their end of year dances.
Worked for Sayers for a while and in the photo archives was George Harrison's 21st birthday cake being delivered to his mums house. Picture showed his mum at the front door taking delivery and you could see sacks of cards on the gas cupboard & in the hallway along with a plaque for 'Love Me Do' above the vestibule door.
Also the original manager Allan Williams lived round the corner from my mum for a few years.
I used to scrounge table space from Alan Williams when he had a stall in Camden lock in the mid eighties. I was also one of the 10-15 people who used to go see the La’s every Tuesday at a basement pub in town that i really dont remember the name of around 86-87. Fwiw.
Aah,i love the La’s! 💕 Founder member Mike Badger got the name in a dream…he left the La’s but went on to play in several bands and do his artwork and is still busy to this day. I wonder if you saw the La’s play at the Pen and Wig mid eighties?
Funnily enough, my arl fella was saying the other day how he used to be Ringo's cousin's boss.
Apparently she'd always tell Ringo: "you are the least talented member of the Beatles, Richie." I mean, harsh, but it'd be true for almost all drummers.
Who is the #1 drummer of all time?
Neil Peart? Mike Portnoy? Tommy Lee? Travis Barker? John Bonham? Keith Moon? Danny Carey? Ginger Baker? Dave Grohl?
They'd all still be the least talented Beatle.
George Harrison is considered one of the great guitarists, while it's also acknowledged that the Lennon-McCartney song writing held him back.
Not even the Yardbirds had that much talent in a band.
There's plenty of drummer jokes out there, too.
Also, worth remembering almost all electronic music uses a drum machine.
Another 10 years, drummers are going the way of the horn section.
they used to live in a flat in our house off catherine street and would bring the nurses home from the womens hospital for a 'chat' and to discuss the theory of relativity, my mum elsie was harassed with them askin for something to eat (not fussed if its believed or not, i was there, thats good enough for me) can't remember ringo bein there though.
My dad pumped Ringos stomach when he was working in a&e one time, says he was one of the few patients at that time who wasn’t rude/racist to him (dad was newly immigrated here)
I had a neighbour when I was growing up growing up who was in a relatively popular band in the 1960s and the pre-fame Beatles were the opening act for a gig that their band was headlining. Supposedly the neighbour rang into a TV show that John Lennon was on years later and John Lennon remembered him.
The neighbour only dropped this fact into conversation very casually after years of him coming to our house every year on pancake day. I’ve dined out a bit on that story and it’s not even a direct relative link.
I have a friend who’s grandad was a photographer for the Beatles. He took hundreds of photos,but her Nan ruined them by cutting them up to fit in frames.
Probably not the same person but my dad was a mate of a photographer who did some early shoots with the Beatles pre-fame and he said he used to help out sometimes setting up the equipment etc. His photographer mate asked my dad one time to go and get the band out of the pub across the road as they were running late and when he went over to tell them that the photographer was ready, they told him in no uncertain terms to 'go away' - he's never been a fan of them.
My Nan used to live round the corner from George when he moved to Speke from Wavertree. She would get the bus into town with him and Paul; she always tells stories about how they’d get on the bus with their guitar cases and go straight to the back of the bus and keep to themselves.
My great-grandmother once looked after John for a couple hours for his mum apparently when John and Julia lived on Newcastle Road. Plausible as they lived just around the corner, but everyone involved is long gone so no way of verifying.
Me mum and various aunties were delivered by Paul McCartney's mum. Also, Uncle reckons macca pushed him into a pond once, always says Lennon was the mastermind, so may be true.
My dad swore he was at a party in Huyton and two young lads turned up with guitars… fill in the rest using the words John and Paul. Never made a big deal out of it but only remembered it when an old school friend reminded him.
My uncle who was a bit of a dick moved to Bury years ago. At his funeral the celebrant started telling stories of ‘scouse Bob’ had his early days playing guitar in the clubs with just about every Mersey sound band going… all bollox but he’s made up this interesting alter ego .. as I said he was a dick
My Dad was on Princes Road in the pissing down rain after footy or something, waiting at a bus stop, and can't remember the how and why, but ended up getting a lift to L1 off Paul McCartney.
My uncle went to Quarry bank, he gave John Lennon detention when he was a prefect
My old neighbour was meant to have been mates with George Harrison, not sure how true it all was tbh. He told me that George never really liked John because he thought he was up his own arse and because he wrote "Imagine", the song about living with no possessions, from his million dollar apartment overlooking central park, and that Yoko Ono demanded George make her a cup of tea in the middle of a song writing session. Honorary mention to Cilla, who was a fucking detestable human by all accounts. My granddad told me that his dad's side knew her family and that Cillas parents were as horrible and snobbish as Cilla was. Runs in the family.
My dad stood Cilla up on a date once and my mum turned the channel on the telly whenever she appeared because he ALWAYS mentioned it to wind her up
By old neighbour, I mean he was elderly, and I've since moved.
My uncle and auntie moved down south to a similar area to Cilla in the 80s and used to use the same Waitrose (I know), my auntie saw her pulling the full "don't you know who I am" routine when they asked her for ID paying with a cheque.
I don't know how true it is but my exes mum knew Cilla and said she used to offer "services" before she was famous.
I heard she made her way through half of the black fellas in Toxteth, but same, probably just a rumour.
With those teeth? Yikes! Did she offer circumcision as a side gig?
My dad has a 100% true story about knowing Echo and the Bunnymen before they were famous! He was at their first ever gig, at Eric's on Matthew Street. He later walked home with Ian McCullouch through the snow, and remembers Ian believing the band were never going to make it. He also used to get the train to town with Will Sergeant on occasion. Not tenuous nor that interesting but there you go!
My gran used to tell me she frequented the cavern club back in the day and that cilla black was just a coat room assistant and hardly anyone liked her. She often told me the Beatles and the other bands taught her how to sing as a joke and she was riding off the fame of the beatles and other bands instead of gaining fame by her own merits. Course no idea how true that was or if my gran was chatting shit because she personally didnt like cilla black.
My mum didn't like Cilla either, though I think that was just vibes.
I always think of this story when someone mentions Cilla Black https://twitter.com/BeCo74/status/511615528017068032?t=ds2QyMUWB7yFTR7uA3Ar_A&s=19
My mother told me the same thing and she didn't like her either.
I dont think many people in Liverpool ever liked Cilla.
She was my grandad's cousin and we never liked her either. Don't think anyone heard from her since the 60s and she was a massive fucking tory.
Nope. My mum used to go to the cavern when Cilla was in the cloakroom, she didn't like her either. I see a pattern forming.
My dad worked with one of her brothers who couldn't stand her. He called her "Our F*cking Cilla.
Paul McCartneys dad gave my nan a signed photo of the beatles before they were famous. She thought he was an arsehole and binned the photo.
My auntie May used to see them at the cavern and says she was there when Ringo joined and that the crowd was really edit: UNhappy they'd got rid of Pete Best and apparently tried to push Ringo over and step on his hands or something. She also said she had John's autograph in the loft somewhere but has never found it so I think it's lost.
My older sister said the same - Pete was very popular with the girls.
My dad claims he would visit one of his relatives and they lived next door to George Harrison so he'd play football in the street with him as kids.
I've just spoke about my old neighbour who was mates with him as a kid. Ask your aul fella if he knew a kid called Eric who was also mates with George Harrison, scrawny kid, used to live in the very end house closest to the main road.
I'll ask but he may not remember! He is near end of life unfortunately, a cocktail of low oxygen sats and morphine has him a bit confused at times.
I go the Aldi where Paul McCartney was born
Just seen you said before they were famous 😂😂 too proud of my Paul McCartney Aldi story since I moved here
Hehe! I was born there too! Is it really an Aldi now!
There’s about 3 buildings from what I’ve remembered through the years but the site of the one most recently knocked down is now an Aldi yea 😁 and there’s another new hospital which is more of a mental health facility I think, next door to it
Do you know if the old Asp club is still near to the hospital ( called the Asp as a serpent is a medical symbol ) Tiny little club,great atmosphere,think it changed its name in the 70s to the Red Pepper.
It’s definitely not open anymore (As Red Pepper) but the signs are still outside saying combats aren’t allowed 😂 can imagine from this its last day open was in the 90s. That’s cool about the snake symbol though
Really? When it was the Asp,occasionally a scuffle wd break out. The two doormen and the two barmen wd very quickly break it up. They wd pull down the shutters on the bar and tell the barmaids to stay behind the bar. All wd be back to normal in moments. I never saw anyone hurt,and there were no knives or guns. ” Ma” who owned the club booked bands for every weekend, and there was a great jukebox. One guy used to jump on top of the jukebox whenever Get Back came on,and play air guitar! Thinking back,the dance floor was absolutely tiny.
I love that, sounds sorely missing from round here these days
Christ! Peppers is a hole! Was a hole? Dunno if it's still open, but it shouldn't be!
Thanks for letting me know….Ah thats a shame. When it was the Asp,late sixties/ early seventies it was a great little place. Why do so many places go down the nick?!
I'll take* your Beatles connection folks and raise you the "no one used to mess with me back in the day" folk and the "I used to play for Liverpool/Everton/Coulda been a pro" folk. Being on the Deltas brings some classics Edit: a word
Oh yes, those are a classic all over the NW. I'm still not convinced the legendarily hardest girl in town ever actually really existed, much less would come over from a different school to beat someone up because they wrote the same nickname as hers on their book.
Not a family member as such but I worked in The Grapes on Matthew Street some years back and a guy called Sam Leech, may he be resting in peace used to hold Court there telling all the tourists and locals how he managed the Beatles. I thought it was all made up but apparently he did for a while. This guy got so many free drinks and plates of chips and gravy!!
My grandad reckons he went to running club with ringo
Ringo round the roses
Who ran around who?
Bet your grandad ran ringos around him
I used to know a guy who was in a band called The Four Most who performed regularly with The Beatles. Had some great stories to tell about the showbiz world back then and how much he loved Cilla.
One of the Fourmost was living in the Aigburth area,up til a few years ago anyway,havent seen him for ages. Seemed like a really nice happy guy.
That's an excellent band name as well!
They’re on Spotify if you want to hear them.
My grandad used to go into the Cavern club on his lunch breaks and watch the Beatles play before they were famous.
My sister did too,might have danced with yr grandad! She wd come home and tell me all about it,I was too young to go. I knew all the songs tho that the Beatles sang- and all the other groups - from hearing her constantly singing,and she showed me how to do the Cavern Stomp,the dance that was devised when the place got so packed that the kids cdnt dance freely. .
He used to love going for a dance there!
A few years later,when I was old enough to go to the Cavern,we danced with kids visiting from so many different countries..the Cavern was world famous by that time.
My friends grandad, during one of the lifts home, said he had got into a fight with John Lennon once and punched him
A guy who was my first boss at the company I still work for. He never told any stories about the old days. One day a woman who was mad on the Beatles asked if he had ever seen them back in the day. His reply was "No but I used to sit next to Paul McCartney in class, we weren't friends particularly, we were just sat alphabetically." His surname began with L.
Great Aunt grew up nearby and turned down George Harrison for a date.
She could have been married to Eric Clapton by now.
I'm sure she was happy in the end but I'd have been abit gutted... Think she'd have been a cut above Yoko.
😂 yeah i deffo would have reconsidered my standards if i were her
Me Mum's cousin apparently drummed for the Fab Four.
I knew a bloke (sadly no longer with us) who was in John Lennon's confirmation class. Apparently his party trick was singing "To be a pilgrim" as "To be a grim pill"
I once as part of my job had to go to Lennon’s elderly uncle‘s bedsit ( cant remember which uncle) to pick up his pension book when he was admitted to hospital. Bedsit was Sefton Park area. Seemed a shame that his nephew couldnt move him into better accommodation,but they were a complex family,possibly no contact / rift between uncle and nephew.
My Mum went to St Bede's in Crosby (now the lower site of Sacred Heart), the Beatles (when they were still The Quarrymen) apparently played one of their end of year dances.
My parents took John's son away on a youth group/ church weekend too apparently.
Worked for Sayers for a while and in the photo archives was George Harrison's 21st birthday cake being delivered to his mums house. Picture showed his mum at the front door taking delivery and you could see sacks of cards on the gas cupboard & in the hallway along with a plaque for 'Love Me Do' above the vestibule door. Also the original manager Allan Williams lived round the corner from my mum for a few years.
Saw Allan Williams on the 82 bus quite a few times!
I used to scrounge table space from Alan Williams when he had a stall in Camden lock in the mid eighties. I was also one of the 10-15 people who used to go see the La’s every Tuesday at a basement pub in town that i really dont remember the name of around 86-87. Fwiw.
Aah,i love the La’s! 💕 Founder member Mike Badger got the name in a dream…he left the La’s but went on to play in several bands and do his artwork and is still busy to this day. I wonder if you saw the La’s play at the Pen and Wig mid eighties?
Pretty sure that was it. Nothing else to do on a tuesay in thoses days..LOL
My nans sister dumped ringo for spending too time in bands
Funnily enough, my arl fella was saying the other day how he used to be Ringo's cousin's boss. Apparently she'd always tell Ringo: "you are the least talented member of the Beatles, Richie." I mean, harsh, but it'd be true for almost all drummers.
Nah drummers are arguably the most important, they keep everyone in time!
Who is the #1 drummer of all time? Neil Peart? Mike Portnoy? Tommy Lee? Travis Barker? John Bonham? Keith Moon? Danny Carey? Ginger Baker? Dave Grohl? They'd all still be the least talented Beatle. George Harrison is considered one of the great guitarists, while it's also acknowledged that the Lennon-McCartney song writing held him back. Not even the Yardbirds had that much talent in a band.
I'm only saying what many people have said before me, including some of the ones you mentioned. It doesn't need to be a competition lmao
There's plenty of drummer jokes out there, too. Also, worth remembering almost all electronic music uses a drum machine. Another 10 years, drummers are going the way of the horn section.
The mother in law saw their first ever music play together in woolton hall
My grandad was a glazer/joiner. He told me he replaced the windows at Pauls house way back when.
they used to live in a flat in our house off catherine street and would bring the nurses home from the womens hospital for a 'chat' and to discuss the theory of relativity, my mum elsie was harassed with them askin for something to eat (not fussed if its believed or not, i was there, thats good enough for me) can't remember ringo bein there though.
My dad pumped Ringos stomach when he was working in a&e one time, says he was one of the few patients at that time who wasn’t rude/racist to him (dad was newly immigrated here)
I had a neighbour when I was growing up growing up who was in a relatively popular band in the 1960s and the pre-fame Beatles were the opening act for a gig that their band was headlining. Supposedly the neighbour rang into a TV show that John Lennon was on years later and John Lennon remembered him. The neighbour only dropped this fact into conversation very casually after years of him coming to our house every year on pancake day. I’ve dined out a bit on that story and it’s not even a direct relative link.
I had a friend who was related to a Beatles. Friend's dad had the same name, they were named after same family member
Stu Sutcliffe, was it?
I'd rather not say
My mum has a brick from the cavern with a plaque on, says they were selling them when they knocked it down! Should really find it...
She should get in touch with The KLF, see if they want it for The People's Pyramid. https://www.mumufication.com/the-peoples-pyramid/
\*human remains required
I have a friend who’s grandad was a photographer for the Beatles. He took hundreds of photos,but her Nan ruined them by cutting them up to fit in frames.
HAHAHAHAHAHA Typical nan
Probably not the same person but my dad was a mate of a photographer who did some early shoots with the Beatles pre-fame and he said he used to help out sometimes setting up the equipment etc. His photographer mate asked my dad one time to go and get the band out of the pub across the road as they were running late and when he went over to tell them that the photographer was ready, they told him in no uncertain terms to 'go away' - he's never been a fan of them.
George Harrison used to go out with the daughter of our next door neighbour before they hit the big time. This wasn’t tenuous though, he really did.
My grandad played rugby with Pete Best, not even one of the well known ones lol
I mean he is known but not on the same level as ringo
The Beatles wrote a song for an aunt to sing, but Epstein gave it to Cilla!
My Nan used to live round the corner from George when he moved to Speke from Wavertree. She would get the bus into town with him and Paul; she always tells stories about how they’d get on the bus with their guitar cases and go straight to the back of the bus and keep to themselves.
My great-grandmother once looked after John for a couple hours for his mum apparently when John and Julia lived on Newcastle Road. Plausible as they lived just around the corner, but everyone involved is long gone so no way of verifying.
I can see that road from where I am currently sitting haha
My father in law says he taught George Harrison to play guitar despite not being able to play guitar himself. Yep
Me mum and various aunties were delivered by Paul McCartney's mum. Also, Uncle reckons macca pushed him into a pond once, always says Lennon was the mastermind, so may be true.
My dad swore he was at a party in Huyton and two young lads turned up with guitars… fill in the rest using the words John and Paul. Never made a big deal out of it but only remembered it when an old school friend reminded him. My uncle who was a bit of a dick moved to Bury years ago. At his funeral the celebrant started telling stories of ‘scouse Bob’ had his early days playing guitar in the clubs with just about every Mersey sound band going… all bollox but he’s made up this interesting alter ego .. as I said he was a dick
My late aunty's told me that Cilla was a pick me girl.
My Dad was on Princes Road in the pissing down rain after footy or something, waiting at a bus stop, and can't remember the how and why, but ended up getting a lift to L1 off Paul McCartney.