Introducing George
In this month’s newsletter, we welcome the 13-year-old George Harrison to our story.
From cinema to motor racing, and photography, Liverpool Institute pupil George Harrison had many interests - but ahead of them all was a growing passion for the guitar and the sounds he could make on one.
But before we get to George’s story there’s some…
Beatley News Updates
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Twenty years ago, after being told by several publishers that no one was interested, I wrote and self-published a little book called Before They Were Beatles. It's been a steady, if not spectacular, seller ever since.
A couple of years ago I decided to to turn it into a podcast.
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The Savage Young Beatles
In gig news, The Savage Young Beatles will return to the historic Jacaranda Club in Liverpool to headline on 30th December 2023.
We are delighted to announce that The Savage Young Beatles will be back in the US to commemorate and celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Beatles' arrival in the USA
Gigs lined up so far include:
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February 1956 - Introducing George
On the 25th of February, 1956 George Harrison officially became a teenager as he celebrated his 13th birthday.
George was born at 12 Arnold Grove, in Wavertree Liverpool in 1943, the youngest of four children born to Harry and Louise Harrison. While George’s surroundings and upbringing were distinctly working class by the standards of the time, his father Harry, a former steward on the White Star shipping line, worked for the local transport authority as a bus driver and scheduler, they had a comfortable life and were perhaps the most supportive and stable of the future Beatles families.
George’s relatives often got together for extended family gatherings at which music would be a central part, often involving singalongs to old favorites playing on the gramophone. One of George’s earliest memories was of him standing on a leather stool and singing along to Irish folksongs. (1)
After waiting almost eighteen years on the Liverpool council’s housing list, in 1949 the family was moved to a larger, more modern, house at 25 Upton Green in Speke, but George continued to attend Dovedale Primary School where he’d started the year before. He was at the school at the same time as a certain John Lennon, although two years behind him, and the two never crossed paths. While not an outstanding student at his primary school, George did enough to pass the entrance requirements for the prestigious Liverpool Institute.
He started at the city center school in 1954, riding on his father’s bus, the number 86, between Speke Boulevard and Mount Street, a journey of just under an hour. During the rides to and from school, he made the acquaintance of another Liverpool Institute pupil who also happened to live in Speke, one James Paul McCartney.
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