Pete Best
Pete Best performing in Maryland in 2006.
Background information
Birth name	Randolph Peter Best
Also known as	Pete Best
Born	(1941-11-24) 24 November 1941 (age 70) Madras, Madras Presidency, British India
Origin	Liverpool, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Rock and roll, rock
Occupations	Drummer, civil servant, songwriter, vocalist
Instruments	Drums, vocals
Years active	1959–68, 1988–present
Associated acts	The Beatles, Lee Curtis & the All Stars, Pete Best & the All-Stars, The Pete Best Four, The Pete Best Combo, The Pete Best Band
Website	www.petebest.com

Pete Best (born 24 November 1941) is a British musician, principally known as the original drummer in The Beatles. He was born in the city of Madras, which was then part of British India. After his mother moved to Liverpool in 1945, Best's mother, Mona Best (1924–1988), opened The Casbah Coffee Club, in the cellar of the Bests' large house in Liverpool, which became very popular, having a membership of over 1,000. The Beatles (at the time known as The Quarrymen) played some of their earliest concerts at the club. Best played there with his first band, The Black Jacks, and later with The Beatles.

Best was invited to join The Beatles on 12 August 1960, on the eve of the group's first Hamburg season of club dates. He was eventually replaced by Ringo Starr on 16 August 1962, when The Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, dismissed Best under the direction of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, following The Beatles' first recording session at Abbey Road Studios. After working in a number of commercially unsuccessful groups he gave up the music industry to work as a civil servant for twenty years, before starting The Pete Best Band. He has been married for over 45 years to Kathy Best; they have two daughters and four grandchildren. Best is sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Beatle".

Early life[link]

Best's mother, Mona Best (née Alice Mona Shaw), was born in Delhi, India and was the daughter of Thomas (an Irish major) and Mary Shaw.^[1] Her first son, Randolph Peter (Pete Best), was born in Madras (now Chennai), Madras Presidency, British India, on 24 November 1941. Pete's biological father was marine engineer Donald Peter Scanland, who subsequently died during World War II.^[2] Mona was training to become a doctor in the service of the Red Cross when she met Johnny Best. He came from a family of sports promoters in Liverpool which once owned and ran the Liverpool Stadium.^[3] After their marriage on 7 March 1944 at St. Thomas's Cathedral, Bombay, Rory Best was born.^[4] In 1945, the Best family sailed for four weeks to Liverpool on the Georgic, the last troop ship to leave India, carrying single and married soldiers who had previously been a part of General Sir William Slim's forces in south-east Asia. The ship docked in Liverpool on 25 December 1945.^[5][6]

The Beatles and Hamburg[link]

In 1960, Allan Williams arranged a season of bookings for The Beatles in Hamburg, starting on 17 August 1960, but said that he was not impressed with them as a musical group, and hoped that he could find a better act to follow them.^[7]

Having no permanent drummer, McCartney looked for someone to fill the Hamburg position. Best had been seen playing in The Casbah with his own group, The Black Jacks, and it was noted that he was a steady drummer, playing the bass drum on all four beats in the bar, which pushed the rhythm.^[8] He was known in Liverpool as being "mean, moody, and magnificent" by his female fans, which convinced McCartney he would be good for the group.^[9] After The Black Jacks broke up, McCartney convinced Best to go to Hamburg with the group, by saying they would earn £15 per week each.^[10][11] As Best had passed his school exams—unlike Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, who had failed most of theirs—he had the chance to go to a teacher-training college, but decided that playing in Hamburg would be a better career move.^[12] Best had an audition in the Jacaranda club—owned by Williams—and travelled to Hamburg the next day with The Beatles.^[13][14] Williams later admitted that the audition with Best was unnecessary, as the group had not found any other drummer willing to travel to Hamburg, but did not tell Best in case he asked for more money.^[15]

The Beatles first played at the Indra club in Hamburg, but slept in the Bambi Kino (cinema) in small, dirty rooms, which were noisy, cold, and directly behind the screen. Upon first seeing the Indra, where they were booked to play, Best remembered it as being a depressing place that was filled with a few tourists, and having heavy, old, red curtains that made it seem shabby compared to the larger Kaiserkeller.^[16] As Best had been the only group member to study O-Level German at school, he was able to talk with the club's owner, Bruno Koschmider, and the clientele.^[17] After the closure of the Indra because of complaints about the noise, the group started a residency in the Kaiserkeller.^[18][19]

In October 1960, the group left Koschmider's club to work at the Top Ten Club, which was run by Peter Eckhorn, as he offered the group more money, and a slightly better place to sleep, although by doing so they broke their contract with Koschmider.^[20][21] When Best and McCartney went back to the Bambi Kino to retrieve their belongings they found it in almost total darkness. As a snub to Koschmider, McCartney found a condom, attached it to a nail on the concrete wall of the room, and set it alight.^[22] There was no real damage done, but Koschmider reported them both for attempted arson. Best and McCartney spent three hours in a local prison and were subsequently deported, as was George Harrison, for working under the legal age limit, on 30 November 1960.^[23][24]

Back in Liverpool, the group members had no contact with each other for two weeks, but Best and his mother made numerous phone calls to Hamburg to recover the group's equipment.^[25] Mona arranged all the bookings for the group in Liverpool, after parting company with Williams in late 1961.^[26][27]

The ex-Black Jacks guitarist, Chas Newby, was invited to play bass for four concerts, as bassist Stuart Sutcliffe had decided to stay in Hamburg.^[28] Newby played with the group at Litherland Town Hall and at The Casbah.^[29] He was shocked at the vast improvement in their playing and singing, and remembered Best's drumming to be very powerful, which pushed the group to play harder and louder.^[30] It was probably due to McCartney that Best developed a loud drumming style, as he would often tell Best in Hamburg to "crank it up" (play as loud as possible).^[31] When the group returned to Hamburg, Best was asked to sing a speciality number, "Peppermint Twist", while McCartney played drums, but always felt uncomfortable being at the front of the stage.^[32]

"My Bonnie"[link]

The reunited Beatles returned to Hamburg in April 1961. While playing at the Top Ten Club they were recruited by singer Tony Sheridan to act as his backing band on a recording for the German Polydor Records label, produced by bandleader Bert Kaempfert.^[33] Kaempfert signed the group to a Polydor contract at the first session on 22 June 1961. On 31 October 1961, Polydor released the recording "My Bonnie" (Mein Herz ist bei dir nur/My heart is only for you) which appeared on the German charts under the name "Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers"—a generic name used for whoever happened to be in Sheridan's backup band.^[34] The song was later released in the UK.^[35] There was a second recording session on 23 June, and a third session in May 1962.

Decca, Parlophone, and dismissal[link]

Epstein, who had been managing The Beatles for less than a month, quickly arranged for the group to audition at Decca Records in London on New Year's Day, 1962.^[36] The group recorded 15 songs, mostly known cover versions,^[37] and, as Lennon later admitted, were "terrified and nervous". A month later, Decca turned down the group,^[38] about which Best was not informed.^[39]

Five months later, on 6 June 1962, The Beatles attended their first Parlophone recording session at EMI studios, now Abbey Road Studios, for EMI producer, George Martin.^[40] Ron Richards and his engineer, Norman Smith, recorded four songs, which Martin (who was not present during the recording) listened to at the end of the session. The recording convinced Martin that the group was good enough to be signed to a contract, but with one exception; Martin and his engineers wanted to use an experienced session drummer in Best's place, as was common practice at the time.^[40] Many years later Martin still expressed regret about his decision and what followed: "I decided that the drums, which are really the backbone of a good rock group, didn't give the boys enough support. They needed a good solid beat, and I said to Brian, 'Look, it doesn't matter what you do with the boys, but on record, nobody need know. I'm gonna use a hot drummer.' Brian [Epstein] said, 'Okay, fine.' I felt guilty because I felt maybe I was the catalyst that had changed his [Best's] life".^[41][42][43]

When the group heard that Martin and the engineers preferred a session drummer for their upcoming recording session, Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison considered the possibility of dismissing Best from the group. Eventually, after a long delay, they asked Epstein to dismiss Best from the band.^[44] Epstein agonised about the decision. As he wrote in his autobiography, A Cellarful of Noise, he "wasn't sure" about Martin's assessment of Best's drumming and "was not anxious to change the membership of The Beatles at a time when they were developing as personalities ... I asked The Beatles to leave the group as it was".^[45] Epstein also asked Bob Wooler for advice, to which Wooler replied that it was not a good idea, as Best was very popular with the fans.^[46] Ultimately, Epstein decided that "If the group was to remain happy, Pete Best must go".^[45] He summoned Best to his office and dismissed him on 16 August 1962, ten weeks and one day after the first recording session. Best had been with the group for two years and four days.^[10][27]

Best's friend, Neil Aspinall, was waiting for him downstairs in Epstein's NEMS record shop after the meeting. The two went to The Grapes pub, in the same street as the The Cavern Club, where The Beatles had often played.^[47] Starting in 1961, Aspinall had become good friends with Best and subsequently rented a room in the house where Best lived with his parents. Best had asked Aspinall to become the band's roadie, resulting in Aspinall buying an old Commer van for £80.^[48] He had been employed as the band's road manager and personal assistant, but was furious at the news, insisting that he would stop working for them as well, but Best strongly advised him to remain with the group. Aspinall asked Lennon at the next concert why they had fired Best, to which he replied, "It's got nothing to do with you, you're only the driver."^[49]

Prior to Best's dismissal, during one of the extended business trips of Best's father, the 19-year-old Aspinall became romantically involved with Best's mother, Mona Best, who was 17 years his senior.^[50] During this period, he fathered a child by Mona: Vincent "Roag" Best.^[26][51] Roag Best was born in late July 1962, just three weeks prior to Best's dismissal.^[47] Despite his initial support after Best's dismissal, Aspinall elected to stay in the employ of the group, and ended his relationship with Mona (and their three-week-old baby, Roag).^[49]

Mersey Beat magazine editor, Bill Harry, claimed that the vacant drummer position in The Beatles was initially offered by Epstein to Johnny Hutchinson of The Big Three, whom he also managed. Hutchinson refused the job, saying, "Pete Best is a very good friend of mine. I couldn't do the dirty on him". Hutchison filled in as drummer at short notice when Best didn't turn up on the evening of his dismissal, and played a further two bookings until Starr joined the group.^[52] Starr had previously played with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes—the alternating band in the Kaiserkeller—and had deputised when Best was ill or unable to play in Hamburg and Liverpool.^[42][53] Best's dismissal was reported by Harry on the front-page of the Mersey Beat magazine, upsetting many Beatles fans. The Beatles encountered some jeering and heckling in the street and on stage for weeks afterwards, with some fans shouting, "Pete forever, Ringo [Starr] never!" One agitated fan headbutted Harrison in The Cavern, giving him a black eye.^[54][55]

Reasons for dismissal[link]

Best was never fully told why he was dismissed, as the only reason Epstein stated was, "The lads don't want you in the group any more".^[27] Epstein subsequently claimed in his autobiography that Lennon, McCartney and Harrison thought Best "Too conventional to be a Beatle, and though he was friendly with John, he was not liked by George and Paul".^[45] It has been documented (notably in Cynthia Lennon's book, John) that while Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison usually spent their offstage time together in Hamburg and Liverpool, writing songs or socialising, Best generally went off alone. This left Best on the outside, as he was not privy to many of the group's experiences, references, and in-jokes.^[56]

A German photographer, Astrid Kirchherr, asked The Beatles if they would mind letting her take photographs of them in a photo session, which impressed them, as other groups only had snapshots taken by friends. The next morning Kirchherr took photographs in der Dom, a municipal park, close to the Reeperbahn. In the afternoon Astrid took them to her mother's house in Altona; minus Best, who decided not to attend.^[57][58] Best was described by Dot Rhone—McCartney's girlfriend at the time, who later visited Hamburg—as being very quiet, and never taking part in conversations with the group.^[59]

Clothes, drugs and hairstyle[link]

On their first trip to Hamburg, The Beatles realised that the stage suits they wore could not stand up to the hours of sweating and jumping about on stage every night, so they all bought leather jackets, jeans and cowboy boots, which were much tougher. Best initially preferred to play in cooler short sleeves on stage, and so did not match the sartorial style of the group, even though he was later photographed wearing a leather jacket and jeans.^[60] Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Sutcliffe were introduced to drugs in Hamburg. As they played for hours every night, they often took Preludin to keep themselves awake, which were given to them by German customers or by Astrid Kirchherr, whose mother bought them.^[61] Lennon would often take four or five, but Best always refused.^[62][63]

It has been claimed that Epstein became exasperated with Best's refusal to adopt the mop-top-style Beatle haircut as part of their unified look keeping his quiffed hairstyle, although Best later stated that he was never asked to change his hairstyle. In a 1995 BBC Radio Merseyside interview, Kirchherr explained: "My boyfriend, Klaus Voorman, had this hairstyle, and Stuart [Sutcliffe] liked it very, very much. He was the first one who really got the nerve to get the Brylcreem out of his hair, and asking me to cut his hair for him. Pete Best has really curly hair, and it wouldn't work".

Popularity[link]

Best's popularity with fans was a source of friction, as many female fans considered Best to be the band's best-looking member.^[64] Radio Merseyside presenter, Spencer Leigh, wrote a book chronicling Best's firing, suggesting that the other members, McCartney in particular, were jealous.^[65] During the Teenagers' Turn showcase in Manchester, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison walked on stage to applause, but when Best walked on, the girls screamed.^[64] Best was surrounded at the stage door afterwards by attentive females while the other members were ignored after signing a few autographs. McCartney's father, Jim McCartney, was present at the time and admonished Best by saying: "Why did you have to attract all the attention? Why didn't you call the other lads back? I think that was very selfish of you".^[64] Lennon called the accusations of jealousy a "myth", and claimed that Best was only recruited for the band because The Beatles needed a drummer to go to Hamburg, and said, "We were always going to dump him when we found a decent drummer".^[66]

Mona Best's take on her son's sacking, as told to British television in 1963, with Best: "From the point of clash of personalties, well, probably that may be it because Peter did have a terrific fan club, you know, compared to the others". [Interviewer: "Too good looking perhaps?"] "I'll leave that for other people to say but from my point of view we haven't come here to sort of throw sticks and stones at the boys because there is no really hard feeling. There was at first, but it's just the way that it was done that has annoyed us. If it had been done a bit more straightforward it would have been more to the mark".^[67] Martin was shocked that Epstein had sacked Best: "He seemed to be the most saleable commodity as far as looks went. It was a surprise when I learned that they had dropped Pete. The drums were important to me for a record, but they didn't matter much otherwise. Fans don't pay particular attention to the quality of the drumming".^[68] Martin used session musician Andy White on the third session for "Love Me Do" on 11 September, and not Starr, who was Best's replacement.^[69]

Best as a drummer[link]

Musically, Best has been judged to have had a limited rhythmic vocabulary that was seen as holding the other three band members back from their collective musical growth. Martin (see above) deemed Best's drumming to be inadequate for a recording. As stated in Bob Spitz's 2005 biography, "All Pete could do was play 'Fours'", a style of drumming that uses kick drum notes on every quarter note to hold down the beat. Spitz's book also contains engineer Ron Richards' account of his failed attempts to teach Best somewhat more complicated beats for different songs.^[43] Critic and Beatles historian Richie Unterberger described Best's drumming at the Decca session as "thinly textured and rather unimaginative",^[37] and said that Best "pushes the beat a little too fast for comfort".^[38] Unterberger thought Starr to be "more talented".^[70] Beatles critic Alan W. Pollack compared the Best, Starr, and Andy White versions of "Love Me Do", and concluded that Best was "an incredibly unsteady and tasteless drummer" on his version.^[71] Beatles historian Ian MacDonald, recounting the Decca audition, said that "Best's limitations as a drummer are nakedly apparent".^[72] MacDonald notes of the 6 June EMI recording session that "...this audition version [of "Love Me Do"] shows one of the reasons why Pete Best was sacked: in moving to the ride cymbal for the first middle eight, he slows down and the group falters". MacDonald incorrectly notes that the session was an audition, which it was not, being the first recording for a single release.^[73]

All the other Beatles went on record about the dismissal of Best. McCartney said: "It was a strictly professional decision. If he wasn't up to the mark... then there was no other choice." He also pronounced Best to be "a bit limited". Harrison said that "Pete kept being sick and not showing up for gigs" and admitted, "I was quite responsible for stirring things up. I conspired to get Ringo in for good; I talked to Paul and John until they came round to the idea."^[66] For his part, Starr said: "I felt I was a much better drummer than he [Best] was".^[66]

Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison all later stated that they regretted the manner in which Best was sacked. Lennon admitted that "we were cowards when we sacked him. We made Brian do it."^[74] McCartney stated: "I do feel sorry for him, because of what he could have been on to."^[74] Harrison: "We weren't very good at telling Pete he had to go.^[75] Historically it may look like we did something nasty to Pete and it may have been that we could have handled it better."^[76] Starr, on the other hand, feels he has no apology to make: "I never felt sorry ... I was not involved."^[75] Mark Lewisohn concluded that "Despite his alleged shortcomings, it was still shabby treatment ... the most underhand, unfortunate and unforgivable chapter in The Beatles' rise to monumental power."^[77]

After The Beatles[link]

Soon after Best was dismissed, Epstein attempted to console him by offering to build another group around him, but Best refused. Feeling let-down and depressed, he sat at home for two weeks—not wanting to face anybody or answer the inevitable questions about why he had been sacked.^[44] Epstein secretly arranged with his booking agent partner, Joe Flannery, for Best to join Lee Curtis & the All Stars,^[78] which then broke off from Curtis to become Pete Best & the All Stars. They signed to Decca Records, releasing the single "I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door", which was not successful.^[79]

Best later moved to the United States along with songwriters Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington. As The Pete Best Four, and later as The Pete Best Combo (a quintet), they toured the US with a combination of 1950s songs and original tunes, recording for small labels, but had little success.^[79] They ultimately released an album on Savage Records, Best of the Beatles; a play on Best's name, leading to disappointment for record buyers who expected a Beatles compilation. The group disbanded shortly afterwards. Bickerton and Waddington were to find greater success as songwriters in the 1970s, writing a series of hits for the American female group, The Flirtations and a UK group, The Rubettes.^[80]

Later years[link]

Best decided to leave show business, and by the time of Hunter Davies' authorised Beatles' biography in 1968, he was not willing to talk about his Beatles' association. Years later he stated in his autobiography, "The Beatles themselves certainly never held out a helping hand and only contributed to the destruction with their readily printed gossip that I had never really been a Beatle, that I didn't smile, that I was unsociable and definitely not a good mixer. There was not a single friendly word from any one of them".^[81] During the height of Beatlemania he attempted to commit suicide, but was talked out of it by his mother, Mona, and his brother, Rory.^[82]

In 1963,^[83] he married Kathy, who worked behind the biscuit counter at a Woolworth's store. Their marriage has lasted for more than 45 years: they have two daughters (Beba and Bonita) and four grandchildren.^[84] Best did shift work loading bread into the back of delivery vans, earning £8 a week.^[85] His education qualifications subsequently helped him become a civil servant working at the Garston Jobcentre in Liverpool,^[82] where he rose from employment officer to training manager for the Northwest of England,^[86] and, ironically, remembered "a steady stream of real-life Yosser Hughes types" imploring him to give them jobs. The most he could do, he recalls, was to offer to retrain them in other fields, "which was an emotional issue for people who had done one kind of work all their lives."^[87]

In time, Best began giving interviews to the media, writing about his time with The Beatles, and serving as a technical advisor for the television film, Birth of The Beatles. He found a modicum of independent fame, and has admitted to being a fan of his former band's music owning their records.^[88] In 1995, the surviving Beatles released Anthology 1, which featured a number of tracks with Best as drummer, including songs from the Decca and Parlophone auditions. Best received a substantial windfall—between £1 million and £4 million—from the sales, although he was not interviewed for the book or the documentaries.^[89][90] The collage of torn photographs on the Anthology 1 album cover includes an early group photo that featured Best, but Best's head was removed, revealing a photo of Starr's head, taken from the Please Please Me cover photo. (The missing section of the photograph appears on the cover of the album Haymans Green). A small photograph of Best can be seen on the left side of the Anthology cover.^[91] Best appeared in an advertisement for Carlsberg lager that was broadcast during the first commercial break of the first episode of the Anthology TV series on ITV in November 1995. The tag line was "Probably the Pete Best lager in the world", a variation of Carlsberg's well known slogan.^[92]

Best on 30 October 2005.

The Pete Best Band[link]