Now that we’ve hit the 60th anniversary of the start of The Beatles’ recording career with EMI, some early photos of the group are circulating in the media. Rare photos have been released of a July, 1961 appearance of The Beatles at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. That’s more than a year before Ringo joined the band, and before they recorded their first single, “Love Me Do”.
This photo (from Tracks Ltd/PA) shows George Harrison (18 years old) Paul McCartney (19), and John Lennon (20). Drummer Pete Best (19) is behind Paul. The Beatles had recently returned from playing a marathon gig in Hamburg, Germany.
In the second photo, Paul is rocking a vocal. As you can see from George’s hairstyle, this was before they adopted their signature Beatle haircuts. These are the only photos with the group in these outfits, leather pants and cotton shirts.
Here’s a great shot of The Beatles returning to the Cavern Club after another stay in Hamburg. They added the leather jackets and their hair is on the way to the Beatlemania look…although Pete Best was nonconformist. As we learned, he didn’t quite fit in with the others, and his drumming was not up the the standards the group needed to record.
(Photo V&A Images, Getty Images)
Ringo’s first performance with The Beatles was on August 18th, 1962. Above is a backstage photo from that time. Ringo was on the first Beatles single, “Love Me Do”, which was released on October 5th, 1962 in England.
(The Beatles practicing at the Cavern Club in 1962)
Above are photos of The Beatles’ last performance at the Cavern Club. It was on August 3rd, 1963, and it marked performance number 292 since The Beatles started playing there in 1961.
Paul’s brother, Michael McCartney, also released photos he took of John & Paul writing songs in 1963 at the McCartney home. Paul was quoted as saying his writing sessions with John were always successful. Michael said this session included “I Saw Her Standing There”.
And the rest is musical history.
This is not the Cavern Club.