So there’s a bit of Pete Best activity around – with the current promo for the Liverpool Beatles Museum, and our NIR friends’ podcastings.
And yes, apparently neither Paul nor Ringo have spoken to PB in 60 years. Nor did George, even during the trawl-through of the Fabs’ past in Anthology.
Why?
And would John have made the call? I’d like to think he would have.
I’ll add a personal note in the comments
Once upon a time I had a band, and the drummer got a grant to study in NYC. Off he went.
I hired another drummer.
He was great, and the music sounded better when he played.
So when the original drummer returned I kept the new one. And I never told the previous one
Until about 30 years later, when he just laughed and said it was all OK
Syd Barrett was ousted from Pink Floyd when the others just didn’t pick him up on the way to a gig
As I recall Iain Matthews got in the van for a Fairport gig only to be asked “What are you doing here?”
My flatmate and I played bass and drums in a trio with a very talented singer / guitarist. One day he turned up on our doorstep with sad news. He’d decided to break up the band. It wasn’t personal, he just wanted to go in a different direction.
There was a long silence as we let this sink in. Then he turned to me and said: “So – do you want to form a band?”
I think you’re being a bit sentimental about John there. PB has expressed his bitterness towards the Fabs many many times over the years, which wouldn’t have impressed the Beef Jerky Hitmaker.
@Moose-the-Mooche
Yes I think I am being a bit sentimental about John. I always wanted to think the best of him, all through the “Lennon Remembers” nonsensical stuff. Somehow I think his heart was always in the right place, although it chopped and changed. He was always sincere.
From this clip, it seems doubtful that Lennon would have called.
They all left it to Brian. Surely, that’s what a manager is for.
Not always. Bill Ward had the job of telling Ozzy he was out of Sabbath (not a job I would have gone into without a few stiff drinks beforehand)
… which is exactly the way Ian Gillan got the job. (He apparently couldn’t remember the next morning when his manager called to do the paperwork.)
I remember watching a documentary about Wigan uke spanker George Formby. George’s wife and manager, Beryl, was generally regarded as a bitch and a harridan, but Formby fan Frank Skinner stoutly defended her, saying managers are there to say “no” and look after the money. This she did very well.
Having said that, George did marry a comely local lass a mere seven weeks after Beryl died..
There was a curious, well-spoken lady that used to appear at the end of the Morecambe & Wise TV show, taking applause, accepting a bouquet of flowers and gushing “I LOVE you all!”.
This was based on Beryl Formby. She would do this and audiences had no idea who she was.
“I’d like to thank all of you for watching me and my little show here tonight. If you’ve enjoyed it, then it’s all been worthwhile. So, until we meet again, good night, and I love you all.”
Janet Webb it was.
Mark Lewisohn’s recent talk revealed that Brian was terrified that PB might sue, (even though the contract they’d all signed was void, on a technicality.) So Brian’s lawyer composed a letter effectively breaking up The Beatles, and then a contract reforming them, with Ringo in place. So, if the pub quiz question is “What year did the Beatles split up?” You can query the 1970 answer by saying that they broke up, for about a minute, in 1962.
If you read the Lewisohn book they broke up about 20 times before Love Me Do…
“Andy – you have left The Smiths. Goodbye and Good Luck. Morrissey.”
Contrast with Mick’n’Keef going down to the country to tell Brian, “Ey, cock, you’re fired”
Slightly better when they told Ian Stewart “You’re too old and ugly to be on stage with us. Do you fancy being our road manager? You can still play on the records sometimes.”
A good Tale of Sacking comes from the early days of Metallica. Guitarist Dave Mustaine had become so unpleasant to deal with, that the other members took the difficult decision to boot him out mid-tour. Being early in their career, budgets weren’t huge, so they pooled their cash and bought one Greyhound ticket back to LA.
Somewhere in the mid-west, they dropped the bombshell in a motel room. Dave did not take it well, and choice words were spoken and possibly the odd object thrown. After a while he calmed down and realised the three others were not going to change their minds. Mustaine then uttered the fateful words:
“OK, when does my flight leave?”
This popped up in my youtube recommendations
Pete Best talking about his treatment by the band.
Why did none of them ever call? Because they were never friends. Does anyone call some bloke they worked with for a bit decades ago?
Pete Best still earns a living from a job he was sacked from for not being good enough 60 years ago. We should all be so lucky.
Not sure if it is apocryphal or not, but I’ve read that Tony McCarroll (aka Oasis’ original drummer) found out he was fired by turning up to the rehearsal room & finding his drum kit set up on the street outside.
Lord Ziggy onstage “Not only is tonight the last show of the tour, it’s the last show we’ll ever do”
Spiders of Mars “You what?”
Lord Z: “P45s on the way out, don’t let the door hit you etc etc – oh, btw will you come back and record Pin Ups with me?”
Except Ronson knew and kept schtum as he was being pushed into a solo career.