The Quarrymen at the Crosby Comrades Club

Here I am outside The Crosby Comrades Club where The Quarrymen (who became The Beatles) played just once in November 1957 for about forty minutes. That Sunday afternoon I’d visit a friend’s grave nearby in Litherland and thought I’d have a quick look at the place.

This social club is about ten miles north from John and Paul's homes in Woolton (and six miles from central Liverpool) - quite a distance when you’re at college with no money or transport. John was seventeen years old when he headed the band here having started the band a year earlier with a school friend. The lads guitar technique was rather limited. John’s mum had showed them how to tune the top four strings of their guitars to the same notes as a banjo, and taught them the chords of D, C, and D7. With this they could play crude cover versions.

No photos have emerged from the gig. They lads performed songs by Lonnie Donegan, Fats Domino and Elvis. George Harrison would join the band a few months after the show and Ringo would join four years later. They never returned as The Beatles.