Before They Were Beatles: The Quarrymen

I've been looking for a relevant reason to post up some demos and rehearsals from the earliest incarnation of what would become The Beatles: The Quarrymen. John Lennon put together the earliest forms of this band in March 1957 with several friends. Paul McCartney joined in October of that year, followed by George Harrison in early 1958. And ever-shifting lineup ensued throughout those years with The Quarrymen playing gigs all around their native Liverpool, changing their name several times, among them The Blackjacks, Johnny and The Moondogs (in late 1959), and The Silver Beetles (in 1960), finally settling on The Beatles in late 1960. And so it goes.

A friend forwarded me an article this weekend with the subject line, Mad cool Beatles history. Reading below, I would have to agree.

Tunes from The Quarrymen are at the end.

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Beatles club gains protected status
Fri Sep 15, 4:06 PM ET

LIVERPOOL, England - A suburban basement where The Beatles played some of their earliest gigs was given protected heritage status by the British government Friday. The Casbah Coffee Club, created in the home of original Beatles drummer Pete Best, was given Grade II Listed status on the recommendation of conservation body English Heritage. The designation means the venue, which still contains original artwork and musical equipment, is of "special architectural or historic interest" and cannot be demolished.

Best's mother, Mona, created the club in the basement and coal cellar of her Victorian house on the edge of Liverpool after reading about the "beat" clubs popular with teenagers in London.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison — then billed as The Quarrymen — played at the club's opening in April 1959 as a last-minute replacement for scheduled headliners, the Les Stewart Quartet.

Best later joined the band, renamed The Silver Beatles and then The Beatles. The band played the Casbah many times until the club closed in 1962. The same year, Best was replaced as drummer by Ringo Starr and The Beatles released their first single, "Love Me Do."

The building, still owned by the Best family, features murals and paintings by members of the band and by Lennon's first wife, Cynthia.

Bob Hawkins of English Heritage said the club was "in a remarkably well-preserved condition ... with wall and ceiling paintings of spiders, dragons, rainbows and stars by original band members along with 1960s musical equipment, amplifiers and original chairs."

"We know of no other survival like it in Liverpool or indeed anywhere else," he said.

THE QUARRYMEN
LISTEN: Earliest known recording: Puttin' On The Style (1957)

(From Wiki) On 6 July 1957 the band played at St. Peter's Church garden fête. In the afternoon they played on a temporary stage in a field behind the church. After the set, Ivan Vaughan, an occasional tea chest bass player with the band, introduced Paul McCartney to John Lennon while the band was setting up in the church hall for the second set. McCartney showed the band how to tune a guitar and sang Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" and Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula" to his own guitar accompaniment. The evening show started at 8 p.m. and cost two shillings admission. Audience member Bob Molyneux recorded part of the evening performance on a Grundig portable reel-to-reel tape recorder.

In 1994, Molyneux, then a retired policeman, rediscovered the recordings that he had made of the concert in 1957. The scratchy recordings included covers of Lonnie Donegan's "Puttin' On The Style" and Elvis Presley's "Baby, Let's Play House". On 15 September 1994 Molyneux put his tape up for auction at Sotheby's. The tape sold to EMI for £78,500, making it the most expensive recording ever sold at auction, but the recording quality was too poor to issue and the tape remains in the EMI archives.

REHEARSALS & DEMOS, circa 1960
01. That'll Be The Day (Buddy Holly cover)
02. Well Darling
03. Matchbox (Carl Perkins cover)
04. One After 909
05. Cayenne (instumental)
06. Hello Little Girl
07. That's When Your Heartaches Begin
08. Wildcat (Gene Vincent cover)
09. I'll Always Be In Love With You
10. Some Days
11. Hallelujah I Love Her So
12. You'll Be Mine
13. The World Is Waiting For Sunrise
14. I'll Follow The Sun
15. You Must Write Everyday
16. Movin' And Groovin

QUARRYMEN DEMOS IN A ZIP FILE