6 July 1957 was a pivotal day for the history of modern music: it was the day that John Lennon met Paul McCartney for the first time.
In the afternoon the Quarrymen skiffle group played at the garden fete of St Peter’s Church, Woolton, Liverpool. The performance took place on a stage in a field behind the church. In the band were Lennon (vocals, guitar), Eric Griffiths (guitar), Colin Hanton (drums), Rod Davies (banjo), Pete Shotton (washboard) and Len Garry (tea chest bass).
The group arrived on the back of a lorry. As well as music, there were craft and cake stalls, games of hoop-la, police dog demonstrations and the traditional crowning of the Rose Queen. The fete was a highlight of the year for the residents of the sleepy Liverpool district.
The entertainment began at two p.m. with the opening procession, which entailed one or two wonderfully festooned lorries crawling at a snail’s pace through the village on their ceremonious way to the Church field. The first lorry carried the Rose Queen, seated on her throne, surrounded by her retinue, all dressed in pink and white satin, sporting long ribbons and hand-made roses in their hair. These girls had been chosen from the Sunday school groups, on the basis of age and good behaviour.The following lorry carried various entertainers, including the Quarry Men. The boys were up there on the back of the moving lorry trying to stay upright and play their instruments at the same time. John gave up battling with balance and sat with his legs hanging over the edge, playing his guitar and singing. He continued all through the slow, slow journey as the lorry puttered its way along. Jackie and I leaped alongside the lorry, with our mother laughing and waving at John, making him laugh. He seemed to be the only one who was really trying to play and we were really trying to put him off!
Imagine This
That evening the group were due to play again, minus Colin Hanton, this time at the Grand Dance in the church hall on the other side of the road. They were due on stage at 8pm, and admission to the show, in which the Quarrymen alternated on stage with the George Edwards Band, was two shillings.
Bob Molyneux is infact my father. I was reading this and thinking how Special he is. Unfortunately i wasn’t around when this all happened, i was born in 1995 just a year after. So odd to find my Dad on the internet. 🙂 – Jemima molyneux
Wow. Have you ever heard the recording? I’m assuming your Dad had a copy made before selling it…
Copies of the recording can be found on youtube and elsewhere on the internet.
How lovely, my Grandmother was one of the women running this village fete, my six year old mother was there also.
The 6th of July is also my Birthday.
I was born on July 6th, 1957 around the same time that they (Paul & John) met (in between the first and second set). Paul has said that this was a mysterious thing so I feel very connected to the boys. Even if I had been there at the time I would still would have wanted to be just like them. That feeling has lasted my entire life. I do believe in magical fate!
I was born on July 6, 1957! I always felt there was a spiritual connection with John Lennon & Paul McCartney and myself.
that is unbelievably awesome. lucky you.
I was born July 6, 1957, too!!!
Quite A Day In The Life…
And I saw McCartney (from the 10th row) in Miami July 7 (the birthday of Paul’s father and Ringo!), 2017 for my 60th birthday.
A concert I’ll never forget…
Sometimes you look at some sites and they get times and dates wrong… tis funny that Paul, who was there, so you think he would know, got their ages wrong when they met. He says’ they were 12 when actually he was fifteen and John sixteen…. you see, even when it’s from the horse’s mouth, it ain’t always right!
…later recalled by McCartney in HIS INTRODUCTION to Lennon’s FIRST BOOK, In His Own Write:
…I was a FAT SCHOOLBOY
….I realised he was drunk. We were twelve then, but, IN SPITE of his SIDEBOARDS, we went on to become teenage pals.
Printed IN John’s book. Page 11 matter of fact. (check your copy)
Later on in the intro Paul added,
“…he left school and played with a group called the Beatles, and here he is with a book.
Again I think – ‘Is he deep?’ ‘Is he arty, with it or cultured?’
Paul didn’t get their ages or anything WRONG. Just joking of course.
On the back cover of the book, the author says of himself,
“I was bored on the 9th of Octover 1940 when, I believe, the Nasties were still booming us led by Madalf Heatlump.
Anyway they didn’t get me….as far as I’m conceived this correction of short writty is the most wonderfoul larf I’ve ever ready.”
Yes,exactly. He was just emphasizing the fact of how young they were.
Paul also mentions John’s beery breath and that he was drunk. Paul had just turned 15 at the time and John was going on 17. John was just a bit short of being a year and 8 months older than Paul. For people in their mid teens, that can make quite a difference. Add that to the fact of their very different upbringings…meaning that the way John grew up would make grow up quicker and Paul’s would make him on the young side and more innocent for his age.
Paul still felt like a kid. He saw John as being more worldly, this evidently had an impact on him.
As you pointed out, apollo c vermouth, the words of Paul:
…I was a FAT SCHOOLBOY
….I realised he was drunk. We were twelve then, but, IN SPITE of his SIDEBOARDS, we went on to become teenage pals.
He’s pointing out that they were very young, but very different. He was using the term sideboards (sideburns) mostly figuratively.
Well, obviously „we were 12“ was said as a joke
John had his first band before Paul. I am sure he didn’t need to know how to tune a guitar or play ukele chords. Something isn’t right there. Someone is really trying to gain credit. Even in the photo here John knew chords. I don’t know how some run him down. Including Paul. John was the heart of the Beatles.
Lol, what’s said in the article is true, whether some Lennon fans like it or not. His fisrt band was precisely The Quarrymen, which Paul would join. He didn’t know how to tune in a guitar, not many people knew then.
He played banjo chords, tuning to the A string and leaving the bottom E string loose.
John didn’t know how to tune to standard guitar tuning. His mother, Julia, played banjo, so she taught him how to tune a guitar like a banjo, and taught him banjo chords. Paul taught him “proper” guitar tuning and chords.
A few comments.
-The recording seems to have 2 versions of ‘Puttin’ on the Style’, one quite slow and one fast. Strange that they said it was without Colin Hanton because there are very loud drums on the faster version, and the recording is said to be from the evening performance.
-Len Garry and Pete Shotton totally dispute that John was drinking or that they went to the pub afterwards. (the book Len Garry wrote had a CD attached, with him and Shotton at various sites of their youth discussing different events)
-In the picture of them playing in the field, JOhn seems to be playing a regular G chord on his guitar.
Woah. July 6th is also my dads birthday. He was about 2 years old then but he grew up to be a massive fan of The Beatles. And he didn’t even know that Mcartney and Lennon met on his b-day, of all days ! Guess you learn something new everyday 😀
Wow what a fantastic pic.. The young man in the white T-shirt (back to camera) is me!!! and the lad with his sleeves rolled up is my brother. We were visiting my auntie’s house who lived across from Johns aunt Mimi, so off to the fete we went and spent the time glued to the Quarrymen oblivious to what would transpire in the future!!! I was 8 and my brother almost 12. Great memories and now an actual pic!!! Brilliant
Great story Roy, that is amazing that you were there.
A meeting that at the time seemed like such a trivial thing… and it changed history
i met john in June a few weeks before he played with the Quarrymen. He was staying in Largs in Ayrshire with his cousin Stan. He said he wanted to be as big as Elvis and that he had a skiffle group with his friend Pete and that his mother had taught him to play the banjo. I laughed and said he’d never make it with a banjo. I knew him over the course of three weeks. I was ten years old and I must say John was a big and sometimes a bad influence, stealing unashamedly from Woolies and Simpsons the local store. My little brother was Downes Syndrome and John had a thing about disabled people. He would point and laugh hysterically at them. There was something lacking in his upbringing I would say,maybe not his fault. We both loved the Goons and Hancock and he did turn me on to Rock and Roll. He knew even then about the beatniks and told me they were Cool!!! On a trip doon the watter on the Talisman John stood at the prow and said “I made all this!” I would say he had a bit of a God complex. I loved the guy, and in the absence of my two best friends who were on holiday and never met him we were as thick as thieves! My grandmother said of John, “He’ll go far that laddie, gin they dinna hing him”, and I think she got it about right! We fell out over his attitude to my brother. My father told me he was a bad influence and to ignore him in the street. I did as I was told and hid round the corner when he shouted,”Don’t turn your back on me!” i never saw him again in the flesh but of course he was everywhere and I loved the music! And always will!
Thank you for sharing your recollections, Ian! They were lovely to read.
Thanks for the memories, Ian. I have no doubt about your observations and conclusions of John.
Did you ever write to him or call him after? just curious
Just a dumb question from a dumb Yank …..why is it on the first ad the date is July 6, 1957 which isn’t the way the date is written in U.K. but the date on the programme is correct?
There’s not a standard UK way of writing dates in this way. Sometimes it might be 6 or 6th July, other times it might say July 6 or 6th. It really depends on the writer’s preference. That said, it’s probably more common nowadays to write it the first way, with the number before the month (and if we were abbreviating it we’d always write DD/MM/YY, not MM/DD/YY).
Anybody know who took these photos? Can’t find out for the life of me…
The two photos of the Quarrymen on the back of a truck were taken by my father, James Davis, and the well known shot of Lennon and the Quarrymen was taken by Geoff Rhind, a schoolmate of ours from Quarry Bank.
Rod Davis – Quarrymen
Hi Rod! It’s an honour to have you on the site. If you spot any inaccuracies or admissions do feel free to let me know in the comments sections.
60 years ago to the day. Yet another proof of why the universe is based on randomness. If this rendezvous would not have happened- not only that these two amazing talents on their own right would have never achieved the level of creativity that they have achieved together (certainly driven by fierce competition), our own life would have been totally different and duller. We are blessed that the two did meet.
Indeed “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”
BTW- this is probably the best thing that ever came out of church
61 years ago today… Wow… It feels like something that could happen everyday around here.
There’s a great little youtube clip which proves the exact location at the fete where John would have been performing.
I met Len Gary at the Church a few years ago at a revival
I have been listening to The Beatles for years and only now discovered the audio tape, probably the most important piece of music history the world will ever see survive this long.