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The Quarrymen
performing on 7/6/57 |
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John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met on July 6, 1957 at
the St. Peter's Church Hall fête in Woolton. On that
day, Lennon was performing with his band, The Quarrymen (sometimes
written as The Quarry Men), for the church's annual garden
festival. Although McCartney initially wasn't really interested
in attending the gathering, he was convinced by his friend
Ivan Vaughan that it might be a good place to meet girls. Paul
had a change of mind.
Vaughan, being a mutual friend of both 15 year old McCartney
and 16 year old Lennon, introduced the aspiring musicians between
the first and second of the Quarrymen's sets. Paul was also
introduced to the other members of the group by Ivan, and he
hung around for a while. At one point McCartney picked up a
guitar and played one of Lennon's favorites, "Twenty Flight
Rock", a song popularized by Eddie Cochran. Lennon was impressed
with McCartney's singing the tune with the correct lyrics and
proper chords. Paul then wrote down the lyrics of the song
for John. Lennon himself had a short memory for lyrics as was
evident when he sang the Del-Vikings' song "Come Go With Me" with
incorrect and made up lyrics.
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The
Quarrymen with Paul McCartney
and John
Lennon |
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Two weeks later, McCartney was approached by Quarrymen band
member Pete Shotten who asked him, on Lennon's behalf, if he
was interested in joining the group. Secretly however, John
had mixed feelings about taking Paul in as part of the band.
Their musicality would increase greatly with the addition of
McCartney's talent, but on the other hand, John felt there
could be some competition between himself and Paul. After some
thought, Lennon decided it was best to make the band stronger
with McCartney, and obviously, this turned out to be a giant
leap forward for the group.
The Quarrymen would later include McCartney's friend, lead
guitarist George Harrison, and other members would come and
go. They would later evolve into The Beatles, a band you may
have heard of before. But it all began at a certain church
celebrating its annual garden festival, with that casual introduction
of two teenagers who had the same passion for music. And the
rest, as they say, is history. As a matter of fact, there's
a whole book dedicated to the subject: The
Day John Met Paul: An Hour-by-Hour Account of How the Beatles
Began