Quarry Men - Biography

Skiffle group from Liverpool, England. Three members would famously move on to become three quarters of The Beatles.

John Winston Lennon : Guitar, vocals
James Paul McCartney : Guitar, vocals
George Harrison : Guitar, vocals
John ‘Duff’ Lowe : Piano
Colin Hanton : Drums

The origins of The Beatles date back to 1956 and John Lennon's first band, formed when he was in the Fifth Form at Quarry Bank Grammar School. The name came from a line in the school song: ‘Quarry men strong before our birth’. Initially the group comprised of John on guitar and his close friend Pete Shotton on kitchen washboard. Then it grew with friends Nigel Whalley and Ivan Vaughan joining and dividing the role of tea-chest bass player between them, each playing the instrument when the other couldn’t be bothered. Rod Davis, another Quarry Bank pupil, joined them on banjo. Local Woolton boy Eric Griffiths came in on lead guitar and introduced the others to Colin Hanton, who became the drummer. The role of tea-chest bass player was transferred to Len Garry, introduced to the group by Ivan Vaughan, while Nigel Walley became manager and got bookings for the Quarry Men at local venues such as the Sixth Form school dances, at the youth club belonging to St Peter’s Parish Church in Woolton and at various socials and church fêtes.

On 6 July 1957 Ivan Vaughan, who wasn’t playing tea-chest bass in the group that afternoon (Len Garry had that duty) took his classmate at the Liverpool Institute, Paul McCartney, to St Peter’s Parish Church garden fête where the Quarry Men were due to play. After the performance, Ivan introduced Paul to the group, who were immediately impressed that Paul knew how to tune a guitar – neither John nor Eric Griffiths had learned how to do that. John was further impressed that Paul knew the lyrics of Eddie Cochran’s Twenty Flight Rock from the film The Girl Can’t Help it.

Paul was asked to join the Quarry Men a week later, and soon afterwards Pete Shotton left when, during a drunken party, John smashed Pete’s washboard over his head. John and Pete remained close friends though. It was Paul who introduced George to the group one night late in 1957 in a club called ‘The Morgue’ in the cellar of an old derelict house. George played them Raunchy, an eight-note tune on the bass strings, and then he played the faster and trickier Guitar Boogie Shuffle. George was not asked to join the Quarry Men that night, but would follow the group around occasionally sitting in if a guitarist failed to arrive at one of the shows. As George ‘sat in’ more and more the group decided they had too many guitarists and Eric Griffiths was sacked. John ‘Duff’ Lowe was subsequently recruited, mainly because he could play Jerry Lee Lewis’ exacting arpeggio part in Mean Woman Blues.

It was this quintet that strolled into Phillips Sound Recording Service, 38 Kensington, Liverpool, one day in the spring or summer of 1958 to record Buddy Holly’s That’ll Be The Day and a McCartney/Harrison composition In Spite Of All The Danger.

Biography provided by JPGR&B on 9 December 2012.

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