urban-man John Lennon's childhood home villiage woolton
Dec 12, 2012 18:02:45 #
this is not my normal camera i still took shots :thumbup: :thumbup:
A number of Beatles-related landmarks have put Woolton firmly on the tourist trail John Lennon's childhood home can be found on Menlove Avenue, and Strawberry Field (Lennon added an 's' in his song title), the orphanage where Lennon played as a boy, is on Beaconsfield Road.
Lennon & McCartney first met, and later played together as the Quarrymen, at the hall in St Peter's Church. And by a curious coincidence, there's an Eleanor Rigby buried in the church's graveyard though whether this is the person who inspired McCartney's song is moot.
About The Beatles
The Quarrymen (sometimes written as The Quarry Men)
(circa late 1956 - Oct 1959) are an English skiffle group formed in Liverpool in the latter part of 1956 by John Lennon with several school friends.
It was the band that eventually evolved into The Beatles. The group's name was inspired by the name of the Quarry Bank grammar school, which Lennon and most of his band-mates attended.
On Saturday 6 July 1957 the band played at St. Peter's Church garden fête. In the afternoon they played on a stage in a field behind the church. After the set, Ivan Vaughan, a pal of Lennon who was attending the event with another of his friends Paul McCartney introduced his two friends to each other. Lennon and McCartney chatted for a few minutes while the band was setting up in the church hall for the second set. McCartney demonstrated how he tuned his guitar and sang Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" and Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula", and a medley of Little Richard hits to his own guitar accompaniment. The evening show started at 8 p.m. and admission cost two shillings. A young audience member, Bob Molyneux, recorded part of the evening performance on his Grundig portable reel-to-reel tape recorder. After the show, Lennon and Shotton discussed the afternoon encounter they had had with Ivan Vaughan's young friend and Lennon indicated that he thought they should invite McCartney to join their fledgling group. Two weeks later, Pete Shotton encountered McCartney, who was cycling through Woolton. Shotton conveyed Lennon's casual invitation to McCartney to join the group.
Nigel Whalley, a friend who had briefly played tea-chest bass in the group, was acting informally as a manager for the group. He secured the Quarrymen a booking at Lee Park Golf Club in Liverpool. Alan Sytner, owner of the Cavern club, was a member of the golf club. The band subsequently appeared several times in what were billed as Skiffle Sessions, and in August 1957, their name was first mentioned in the Cavern's advertisement in the Liverpool Echo.
McCartney made his debut with the band for a Conservative Club social, at The New Clubmoor Hall on Back Broadway in Norris Green, Liverpool, on Friday, 18 October 1957, a while after returning from his summer holidays. The band had been booked by local promoter Charlie McBain and they wore matching outfits with long-sleeved, white cowboy shirts, black string ties and black trousers. Lennon and McCartney stood front and center onstage and wore white sports jackets. McCartney played lead guitar. During the show he botched a solo, embarrassing himself and the group. To save face with Lennon, during a break McCartney played him "I've Lost My Little Girl"his recently completed first song. (Hearing this song reportedly inspired Lennon to also start writing.) The other members of the band that night were Hanton on drums, Garry on tea-chest bass and Griffiths on guitar.
On Thursday, 7 November, McBain booked The Quarrymen to appear at Wilson Hall, Garston. They also played Stanley Abattoir Social Club on 16 November, New Clubmoor Hall on 23 November and Wilson Hall on 7 December.
The Quarrymen played The New Clubmoor Hall on 10 January 1958 and at The Cavern on 24 January. With Lennon losing interest in skiffle and playing more rock n roll, banjo-player Rod Davis left the band in February 1958. McCartney's school friend George Harrison first saw the group perform on 6 February playing at Wilson Hall for Charlie McBain and he joined the band two weeks later.
In March, Garry contracted meningitis (from which he later recovered) and was thus sidelined from the band. Griffiths was asked to take over playing tea-chest bass but he declined and left the band.
Shortly after this lineup change, John Charles Lowe, another schoolmate of Paul's, joined the band, playing piano with them through the summer of 1958 whenever a piano was available at the venue. On 23 March the band performed at the opening night of Alan Caldwells cellar club, The Morgue in Broadgreen.
In the summer of 1958 the band (consisting of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Hanton and Lowe) recorded two songs onto a 78-rpm acetate disc in Percy Philips' small demo studio in Kensington Road, Liverpool. The first recording was a cover of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day". The second song was an original composition written by McCartney and Harrison, inspired by Elvis's song "Tryin' To Get To You," titled "In Spite of All the Danger". John Lennon sang lead vocal on the first song and harmonised with Paul on the second.
Lowe left the band in the autumn of 1958 and the band continued to play regularly, including at the wedding reception of Harrison's brother Harry in Speke, on 20 December. After just two more performances (on 1 January at a Speke Bus Depot social club party at Wilson Hall organised by Harrisons father, and on 24 January at a party at Woolton Village Club), Colin Hanton quit the band after an argument with John and Paul on the bus ride home from the latter gig. He was not replaced, and the band slowly disintegrated
The 1950's were a period of great change and excitement for Britain. Merseyside in particular, experienced an upsurge in youth and music culture. Liverpool at the time was a flourishing port of trade and had close links with America and other international countries. Young sailors came and went, bringing with them a new kind of music - Rock and Roll.
In 1957 Paul McCartney and John Lennon, who were already involved in the music scene individually, met at a church fete and formed the embryo of The Beatles. George Harrison joined the band shortly after, followed by Pete Best - their original drummer. The group were known as The Quarrymen and began to play gigs around the City. The band had several different names before settling on The Beatles.
The group gained much experience whilst playing in Hamburg, Germany and in November 1961, during a Cavern Club concert in Liverpool, the Beatles were spotted by Brian Epstein. By following year, Brian secured a record contract for the group. Beatlemania was about to begin!
Pete Best was replaced by a drummer named Ringo Starr and the Beatles recorded their first single 'Love Me Do', which reached No 17 in the charts. Their second single 'Please Please Me' was the first of many to reach the number 1 spot. Beatlemania reached America in 1964, with 73 million viewers tuning in to watch the band play on the Ed Sullivan show.
Following this, The Beatles made their first film - "A Hard Days Night", before embarking on a world tour encompassing Australia, the Far East and again, America. Eventually hysterical fans made live performances impossible. The Beatles performed their last concert in Candlestick Park, San Francisco on 29th August 1966.
The psychedelic period followed - flower power, hippies, drugs, The Maharishi and Indian music. After the death of Brian Epstein, The Beatles decided to form their own company, Apple. In 1969 The Beatles made their last live appearance on the roof of Apple's Saville Row building.
Financial problems for Apple followed, and disagreements within the band. Meanwhile two members of The Beatles married: Paul to Linda Eastman and John to Yoko Ono.
In 1970 Paul filed a suit against John, George, Ringo and Apple to dissolve the group and they went their separate ways. The Beatles were finally dissolved in 1975.
Sadly on the 8th December 1980, John was murdered in New York by a crazed fan, putting an end to the hope of millions of fans that The Beatles might reunite.
Today, The Beatles are a world-wide legend and their music will always be remembered and loved for many generations to come.
In March 1957, while attending Quarry Bank Grammar School in Liverpool, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen. Lennon and the Quarrymen met guitarist Paul McCartney at the Woolton Garden Fête held at St. Peter's Church on 6 July 1957. On 6 February 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison was invited to watch the group (who played under a variety of names) at Wilson Hall, Garston, Liverpool. McCartney had become acquainted with Harrison on the morning school bus ride to the Liverpool Institute, as they both lived in Speke. At McCartney's insistence, Harrison joined the Quarrymen as lead guitarist after a rehearsal in March 1958, overcoming Lennon's initial reluctance because of Harrison's young age. Members continually joined and left the lineup during that period, and in January 1960 Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe joined on bass. Lennon and McCartney both played rhythm guitar and the group had a high turnover of drummers.
The Quarrymen went through a progression of names "Johnny and the Moondogs", "Long John and the Beatles", "the Silver Beetles" (derived from Larry Parnes' suggestion of "Long John and the Silver Beetles") before settling on "The Beatles". There are many theories as to the origin of the name and its unusual spelling. It is usually credited to Lennon, who said that the name was a combination word-play on the insect beetles (as a reference to Buddy Holly's band, The Crickets) and the word beat. Cynthia Lennon suggests that Lennon came up with the name Beatles at a "brainstorming session over a beer-soaked table in the Renshaw Hall bar." Lennon, who was well known for giving multiple versions of the same story, joked in a 1961 Mersey Beat magazine article that "It came in a vision a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, 'From this day on you are Beatles with an A'". During an interview in 2001, Paul McCartney took credit for the peculiar spelling of the name, saying that "John had the idea of calling us the Beetles, I said, 'how about the Beatles; you know, like the beat of the drum?' At the time, everyone was stoned enough to find it hilarious. It's funny how history is made."
In May 1960, The Beatles toured northeast Scotland as a back-up band with singer Johnny Gentle. They met Gentle an hour before their first gig, and McCartney referred to the tour as a great experience for the band. For the tour the often drummerless group secured the services of Tommy Moore, who was considerably older than the others. Soon after the tour, however, feeling the age gap was too great, Moore left the band and went back to work in a bottling factory as a forklift truck driver. Norman Chapman was the band's next drummer, but was called up for National Service a few weeks later. His departure posed a significant problem as the group's unofficial manager, Allan Williams, had arranged for them to perform in clubs on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany.
A number of Beatles-related landmarks have put Woolton firmly on the tourist trail John Lennon's childhood home can be found on Menlove Avenue, and Strawberry Field (Lennon added an 's' in his song title), the orphanage where Lennon played as a boy, is on Beaconsfield Road.
Lennon & McCartney first met, and later played together as the Quarrymen, at the hall in St Peter's Church. And by a curious coincidence, there's an Eleanor Rigby buried in the church's graveyard though whether this is the person who inspired McCartney's song is moot.
About The Beatles
The Quarrymen (sometimes written as The Quarry Men)
(circa late 1956 - Oct 1959) are an English skiffle group formed in Liverpool in the latter part of 1956 by John Lennon with several school friends.
It was the band that eventually evolved into The Beatles. The group's name was inspired by the name of the Quarry Bank grammar school, which Lennon and most of his band-mates attended.
On Saturday 6 July 1957 the band played at St. Peter's Church garden fête. In the afternoon they played on a stage in a field behind the church. After the set, Ivan Vaughan, a pal of Lennon who was attending the event with another of his friends Paul McCartney introduced his two friends to each other. Lennon and McCartney chatted for a few minutes while the band was setting up in the church hall for the second set. McCartney demonstrated how he tuned his guitar and sang Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" and Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula", and a medley of Little Richard hits to his own guitar accompaniment. The evening show started at 8 p.m. and admission cost two shillings. A young audience member, Bob Molyneux, recorded part of the evening performance on his Grundig portable reel-to-reel tape recorder. After the show, Lennon and Shotton discussed the afternoon encounter they had had with Ivan Vaughan's young friend and Lennon indicated that he thought they should invite McCartney to join their fledgling group. Two weeks later, Pete Shotton encountered McCartney, who was cycling through Woolton. Shotton conveyed Lennon's casual invitation to McCartney to join the group.
Nigel Whalley, a friend who had briefly played tea-chest bass in the group, was acting informally as a manager for the group. He secured the Quarrymen a booking at Lee Park Golf Club in Liverpool. Alan Sytner, owner of the Cavern club, was a member of the golf club. The band subsequently appeared several times in what were billed as Skiffle Sessions, and in August 1957, their name was first mentioned in the Cavern's advertisement in the Liverpool Echo.
McCartney made his debut with the band for a Conservative Club social, at The New Clubmoor Hall on Back Broadway in Norris Green, Liverpool, on Friday, 18 October 1957, a while after returning from his summer holidays. The band had been booked by local promoter Charlie McBain and they wore matching outfits with long-sleeved, white cowboy shirts, black string ties and black trousers. Lennon and McCartney stood front and center onstage and wore white sports jackets. McCartney played lead guitar. During the show he botched a solo, embarrassing himself and the group. To save face with Lennon, during a break McCartney played him "I've Lost My Little Girl"his recently completed first song. (Hearing this song reportedly inspired Lennon to also start writing.) The other members of the band that night were Hanton on drums, Garry on tea-chest bass and Griffiths on guitar.
On Thursday, 7 November, McBain booked The Quarrymen to appear at Wilson Hall, Garston. They also played Stanley Abattoir Social Club on 16 November, New Clubmoor Hall on 23 November and Wilson Hall on 7 December.
The Quarrymen played The New Clubmoor Hall on 10 January 1958 and at The Cavern on 24 January. With Lennon losing interest in skiffle and playing more rock n roll, banjo-player Rod Davis left the band in February 1958. McCartney's school friend George Harrison first saw the group perform on 6 February playing at Wilson Hall for Charlie McBain and he joined the band two weeks later.
In March, Garry contracted meningitis (from which he later recovered) and was thus sidelined from the band. Griffiths was asked to take over playing tea-chest bass but he declined and left the band.
Shortly after this lineup change, John Charles Lowe, another schoolmate of Paul's, joined the band, playing piano with them through the summer of 1958 whenever a piano was available at the venue. On 23 March the band performed at the opening night of Alan Caldwells cellar club, The Morgue in Broadgreen.
In the summer of 1958 the band (consisting of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Hanton and Lowe) recorded two songs onto a 78-rpm acetate disc in Percy Philips' small demo studio in Kensington Road, Liverpool. The first recording was a cover of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day". The second song was an original composition written by McCartney and Harrison, inspired by Elvis's song "Tryin' To Get To You," titled "In Spite of All the Danger". John Lennon sang lead vocal on the first song and harmonised with Paul on the second.
Lowe left the band in the autumn of 1958 and the band continued to play regularly, including at the wedding reception of Harrison's brother Harry in Speke, on 20 December. After just two more performances (on 1 January at a Speke Bus Depot social club party at Wilson Hall organised by Harrisons father, and on 24 January at a party at Woolton Village Club), Colin Hanton quit the band after an argument with John and Paul on the bus ride home from the latter gig. He was not replaced, and the band slowly disintegrated
The 1950's were a period of great change and excitement for Britain. Merseyside in particular, experienced an upsurge in youth and music culture. Liverpool at the time was a flourishing port of trade and had close links with America and other international countries. Young sailors came and went, bringing with them a new kind of music - Rock and Roll.
In 1957 Paul McCartney and John Lennon, who were already involved in the music scene individually, met at a church fete and formed the embryo of The Beatles. George Harrison joined the band shortly after, followed by Pete Best - their original drummer. The group were known as The Quarrymen and began to play gigs around the City. The band had several different names before settling on The Beatles.
The group gained much experience whilst playing in Hamburg, Germany and in November 1961, during a Cavern Club concert in Liverpool, the Beatles were spotted by Brian Epstein. By following year, Brian secured a record contract for the group. Beatlemania was about to begin!
Pete Best was replaced by a drummer named Ringo Starr and the Beatles recorded their first single 'Love Me Do', which reached No 17 in the charts. Their second single 'Please Please Me' was the first of many to reach the number 1 spot. Beatlemania reached America in 1964, with 73 million viewers tuning in to watch the band play on the Ed Sullivan show.
Following this, The Beatles made their first film - "A Hard Days Night", before embarking on a world tour encompassing Australia, the Far East and again, America. Eventually hysterical fans made live performances impossible. The Beatles performed their last concert in Candlestick Park, San Francisco on 29th August 1966.
The psychedelic period followed - flower power, hippies, drugs, The Maharishi and Indian music. After the death of Brian Epstein, The Beatles decided to form their own company, Apple. In 1969 The Beatles made their last live appearance on the roof of Apple's Saville Row building.
Financial problems for Apple followed, and disagreements within the band. Meanwhile two members of The Beatles married: Paul to Linda Eastman and John to Yoko Ono.
In 1970 Paul filed a suit against John, George, Ringo and Apple to dissolve the group and they went their separate ways. The Beatles were finally dissolved in 1975.
Sadly on the 8th December 1980, John was murdered in New York by a crazed fan, putting an end to the hope of millions of fans that The Beatles might reunite.
Today, The Beatles are a world-wide legend and their music will always be remembered and loved for many generations to come.
In March 1957, while attending Quarry Bank Grammar School in Liverpool, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen. Lennon and the Quarrymen met guitarist Paul McCartney at the Woolton Garden Fête held at St. Peter's Church on 6 July 1957. On 6 February 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison was invited to watch the group (who played under a variety of names) at Wilson Hall, Garston, Liverpool. McCartney had become acquainted with Harrison on the morning school bus ride to the Liverpool Institute, as they both lived in Speke. At McCartney's insistence, Harrison joined the Quarrymen as lead guitarist after a rehearsal in March 1958, overcoming Lennon's initial reluctance because of Harrison's young age. Members continually joined and left the lineup during that period, and in January 1960 Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe joined on bass. Lennon and McCartney both played rhythm guitar and the group had a high turnover of drummers.
The Quarrymen went through a progression of names "Johnny and the Moondogs", "Long John and the Beatles", "the Silver Beetles" (derived from Larry Parnes' suggestion of "Long John and the Silver Beetles") before settling on "The Beatles". There are many theories as to the origin of the name and its unusual spelling. It is usually credited to Lennon, who said that the name was a combination word-play on the insect beetles (as a reference to Buddy Holly's band, The Crickets) and the word beat. Cynthia Lennon suggests that Lennon came up with the name Beatles at a "brainstorming session over a beer-soaked table in the Renshaw Hall bar." Lennon, who was well known for giving multiple versions of the same story, joked in a 1961 Mersey Beat magazine article that "It came in a vision a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, 'From this day on you are Beatles with an A'". During an interview in 2001, Paul McCartney took credit for the peculiar spelling of the name, saying that "John had the idea of calling us the Beetles, I said, 'how about the Beatles; you know, like the beat of the drum?' At the time, everyone was stoned enough to find it hilarious. It's funny how history is made."
In May 1960, The Beatles toured northeast Scotland as a back-up band with singer Johnny Gentle. They met Gentle an hour before their first gig, and McCartney referred to the tour as a great experience for the band. For the tour the often drummerless group secured the services of Tommy Moore, who was considerably older than the others. Soon after the tour, however, feeling the age gap was too great, Moore left the band and went back to work in a bottling factory as a forklift truck driver. Norman Chapman was the band's next drummer, but was called up for National Service a few weeks later. His departure posed a significant problem as the group's unofficial manager, Allan Williams, had arranged for them to perform in clubs on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany.
john lenons child hud home menlove avenue
villiage pub built in 1641 the coffee house
woolton villiage Liverpool
eleanor rigby
st. peters church
Dec 12, 2012 18:09:00 #
Dec 12, 2012 18:10:17 #
Dec 12, 2012 18:38:09 #
What a brilliant bit of written history and the picture,s add to the history ,nice one fella.my sister( whom is older than me) had the great pleasure to meet all four of the Beatles on Thier return from America to healthyrow.
Dec 12, 2012 18:39:26 #
treslek wrote:
What a brilliant bit of written history and the picture,s add to the history ,nice one fella.my sister( whom is older than me) had the great pleasure to meet all four of the Beatles on Thier return from America to healthyrow.
:thumbup: :thumbup:
Dec 12, 2012 19:46:42 #
Hi Briace, I'm Janny, Erv's wife, and just wanted to thank you for posting the early history before the Beatles were formed, I so enjoyed it. The pictures are awesome! I have read a lot of articles about the Beatles over the years but seeing your photos really helps to bring the history to life. I have so enjoyed your photos of Liverpool as well. Erv shares them with me and you are so kind to explain locations and the happenings there. Thanks so much!
Dec 12, 2012 19:53:03 #
Erv wrote:
Hi Briace, I'm Janny, Erv's wife, and just wanted to thank you for posting the early history before the Beatles were formed, I so enjoyed it. The pictures are awesome! I have read a lot of articles about the Beatles over the years but seeing your photos really helps to bring the history to life. I have so enjoyed your photos of Liverpool as well. Erv shares them with me and you are so kind to explain locations and the happenings there. Thanks so much!
thanks erv :thumbup: :thumbup: ( Birmingham is safe don't worry )
Dec 12, 2012 19:57:22 #
Dec 13, 2012 04:55:05 #
Dec 13, 2012 05:44:04 #
Dec 13, 2012 05:45:49 #
Tom DePuy wrote:
Beautiful........thanks for the posting of those
:thumbup: :thumbup:
Dec 13, 2012 05:47:25 #
COLANN
Loc: Pahiatua Tararua New Zealand
yes i know wooltonm as i come from nearby huyton i used o cycle through woolton in the 50s ,and i must say as far as i am concerened , there was no better place than the pool to have spent my teenage years, i play piano, and played also in a small group at the RAF club in huyton all good fun; its a great report on the beatles, and eventhough i now live in australia, my heart is in liverpool, and always will be,
Dec 13, 2012 06:17:07 #
COLANN wrote:
yes i know wooltonm as i come from nearby huyton i used o cycle through woolton in the 50s ,and i must say as far as i am concerened , there was no better place than the pool to have spent my teenage years, i play piano, and played also in a small group at the RAF club in huyton all good fun; its a great report on the beatles, and eventhough i now live in australia, my heart is in liverpool, and always will be,
:thumbup: :thumbup:
Dec 13, 2012 06:17:40 #
Dec 13, 2012 06:29:44 #
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