The Beatles played at the Riverpark Ballroom in Chester on four Thursdays in the summer of 1962. This was the first show.
It should have been a straightforward engagement, but earlier in the day Pete Best had been sacked from The Beatles by manager Brian Epstein. Although earlier in the day Best had said he would fulfil this booking, he understandably later changed his mind.
The Beatles drafted in The Big Three’s drummer Johnny Hutchinson as a temporary replacement, for this show and the following evening’s performances at the Majestic Ballroom in Birkenhead and the Tower Ballroom in New Brighton, Wallasey. Ringo Starr’s first official show with The Beatles was at Hulme Hall in Birkenhead on 18 August 1962.
The group’s other performances at the venue were on 23 and 30 August, and 13 September 1962.
The building, at 2 Union Street, Chester, was originally the King’s Arms Tavern. In the early 20th century it was enlarged and became the Grosvenor Skating Rink, then the Broadway Dancing Academy Ballroom, known as the Ack. In the 1950s it was renamed the Riverpark Ballroom, but closed in 1963 and was later demolished. It is now the site of a bank’s office.
Why was Pete Best sacked? George did not like Pete and the other two preferred Ringo to Pete too. Drumming wise, Pete was better at the high tempo stuff, and Ringo best when the material was low tempo ballads etc. Where Pete excelled was at connecting with the fans, while Ringo was gifted at connecting with the other Beatles. The best drummer the Beatles had was Norman Chapman. The best drummer for the Beatles though was Pete Best because he was loved by the fans and was well grounded as a person, and so compensated for the streak of madness in the other three. George Martin saw Pete as an asset despite preferring a session drummer to either Pete or Ringo if the truth be known. Ringo could only play the drums in a low key manner and has been vastly overrated because he remained a Beatle during the important years.
Your assertion that Best was a better drummer in any way to Ringo borders on hilarious. The rest of your post are merely your opinions and, such as they are, you’re entitled I guess.
No one at the time thought that Ringo was a better drummer than Pete Best.
Pete Best’s sacking was because they probably thought they would lose a recording contract because the men at Abbey Rd thought the drummer was substandard. It was common in those days to use a sessions drummer for studio work, as they knew the studio ways. Drummers were accustomed to producing volume to fill the sound of dance halls.
It took them a long time to sack Pete after the first recording session at Abbey Rd. They thought it was an audition, it was not, it was a full contact. This only came to light by Mark Lewisohn when he uncovered the contracts at Abbey Rd decades later. So, they could not be rejected at the ‘audition’, the recordings would go ahead.
As the EMI contract was with ‘The Beatles’, of which Best was a part, he probably would have a legal case again them. They may have realised this, so gave him royalties on Anthology, of which he received a few million.
The weird thing is, after this gig, Brian offered the drummer job to Johnny Hutch, as he and Bob Wooler thought it worked perfect. But Hutch turned them down as he was committed to The Big Three. Ringo had been offered the job literally days before yet it all could have turned out very different.