I’m getting to know the districts of Liverpool quite well
and Woolton is a favourite. John Lennon lived here at Mendips on Menlove Avenue
with this Aunty Mimi (his mum was knocked down and killed on this avenue.) For
some reason I grew up thinking he was from a poor family but it's an upmarket
and leafy district with broad lanes, old houses and mature trees. Here I am in
Woolton where John Lennon did a gig with The Quarrymen (and Paul McCartney
first saw him.) It's a play area now in the
corner of a the grounds at Bishop Martin Primary School.
In
the past I've visited the school at weekends when it was locked up but didn't
scale the fence for fear of alarms. Recently I called on a Tuesday and infants were
playing out. I tried the tall gate and it opened but a couple of teachers
looked up and I cowardly backed off. I'm not sure scruffy smelly ugly men like
me can just walk around school grounds taking photos when children are running
around. I waited for playtime to end, entered the gate and took a quick photo.
It
was here on Saturday 6th July 1957 where The Quarrymen performed their skiffle
music. St Peter's Church is next door and they were holding a summer fete. John
had formed the band with his friends from school, taking the name from their
school Quarry Bank School - or a line in their school song, "Quarrymen,
old before our birth / Straining each muscle and sinew". That Saturday the band had first played on
the back of a moving flatbed lorry as it slowly moved through Woolton. They
were behind a procession of floats carrying the Rose Queen, Morris dancers, Boy
Scouts, Brownies, Girl Guides and Cubs. Nowadays there's a road cut between the
school and church but in 1957 there was no way they lorry could get up there. The
Quarrymen moved to a permanent stage in a field just over a hedge from the
churchyard (not sure who owened it then though it was probably part of the
church grounds.)
Most of
Woolton turned out that day. In the afternoon there was a display by the City
of Liverpool Police Dogs then The Quarrymen started playing at 4:15pm. John’s
mum rabidly cheered on her son who had slicked-up his hair like his idol Elvis
Presley. Paul McCartney arrived when they were playing Come Go with Me. Afterward the gig Paul and John chatted for a few
minutes (Paul recalls John's breath smelling of illegal beer) and then the band
had to set up their instruments in the church hall for an 8pm concert (Paul
left and didn’t see this.) There was a thunderstorm that night which made the
church lights go out temporarily.
After the show
John walked home with a band member and they discussed the encounter with Paul
(who had showed how he tuned his guitar and played it.) They considered asking
Paul to join the band. Two weeks later this was put to Paul who said he would
join following a family holiday at Butlins holiday camp in Filey. At the time Paul
was attending the Liverpool Institute and recommended a 14-year-old student
George Harrison who joined in early 1958. In early 1960 John recruited his art
school pal Stuart Sutcliffe and they became the Silver Beetles before settling
on The Beatles in August 1960 when they first performed in Hamburg.
Anyway, here I
am where it happened. That Tuesday morning I walked up the private road to the
school. I got chatting to a man building a wall by the road and he clocked the
camera on my chest. I said this was where Paul and John met but this local lad
was Beatles-immune. I strolled around the cemetery at the back of the church
and heard music inside. Previously when I've arrived here on Sunday mornings
I've often seen the priest shaking hands with his flock as they leave the
Sunday morning service. Right now an Oriental couple appeared and I got
chatting to them. Had they come to see the famous grave? Yes, they were
delighted when I led them to it - the Eleanor Rigby headstone in the cemetery
at the front. Their brows creased and they looked puzzled. No they wanted to
see where Bob Paisley the legendary Liverpool football manager was buried. I
led them to the back cemetery again, showed them Bob's grave and took a photo
of them on their camera (brown teeth, better to have kept the mouths closed.)
The guitar
John is playing in these photographs sold for auction for £155,000 (he bought
it for £10.)
The Quarrymen
had performed on the back of lorry before arriving at the church...
In the front
cemetery is the Eleanor Rigby grave. You've just go to touch it....