John
Lennon’s Original Quarrymen
The band that gave birth to the Beatles!
Appearing at the Halfmoon Putney on Sat 10 Sep 2005
Tickets £10 from the Halfmoonwebsite: www.halfmoon.co.uk
John
Lennon’s Original Quarrymen - the band who were on stage with John Lennon on
Saturday July 6th, 1957 (the day John met Paul McCartney) - got back
together in 1997 to celebrate the most momentous meeting in pop music history.
They enjoyed themselves so much and interest from fans was so great that they
decided to re-form the group forty years on!
The current
Quarrymen lineup comprises three of those five original musicians, - Colin
Hanton on drums, - Len Garry, former bass player, now playing guitar and
replacing Lennon as lead singer; - Rod Davis, from Quarry Bank School,
at first the banjo player but now on guitar. They have now been joined by
pianist John Duff Lowe who was brought into the Quarrymen in 1958 by Paul
McCartney and who played with John, Paul, George and Colin on the famous Percy
Phillips recording session which produced "In spite of all the
danger" and "That'll be the day" which feature on the
"Anthology". The Quarrymen of course eventually evolved into
the Beatles.
The other
members of the original group were John's lifelong friend, washboard player
Pete Shotton, who retired in Dec 2000 for health reasons and guitarist Eric
Griffiths who sadly died in January 2005.
The
Quarrymen play the music which influenced the birth of the Beatles, the
skiffle and Rock ‘n’ Roll of the mid fifties - Mean Woman Blues, Midnight
Special, Twenty Flight Rock, Whole lotta shakin’, Blue Suede Shoes, Lost
John and many more, played in the style of the many hundreds of similar groups
who were laying the foundations of British Rock Music.
As well as
their music, the Quarrymen share their Liverpool sense of humour in the
stories and anecdotes with which they pepper their performance, giving Beatles
fans a unique insight into the origins of their favourite group and the city
in which they grew up.
The
Quarrymen got back together in 1997 since when they have played all over
Europe, in Cuba, Canada and Japan and have visited the USA many times,
performing in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and across the country. They
have appeared on stage with Pete Seeger, Pete Best and Tony Sheridan and have
made countless TV and radio appearances.
Beatle
biographer Hunter Davies wrote the story of the Quarrymen published in 2001.
The
Quarrymen have released two cds, "Get back together" in 1997 and
"Songs we remember" in 2004 which are available from the Quarrymen's
official website www.quarrymen.co.uk.
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