The First Tour
Looking back at May 1960 and a young band on the road.
In early May 1960, Larry Parnes, the UK’s leading pop promoter at the time, was looking for a group to provide backing for one of his stable of singers, the Liverpool-born Billy Fury. What better place to look than in Fury’s hometown? An audition session was arranged for four bands; Gerry & The Pacemakers, Cass & The Casanovas, Cliff Roberts & The Rockers, and Derry & The Seniors. Local promoter Alan Williams who arranged the auditions for Parnes sneakily added in a fifth band, one that he was managing at the time, The Silver Beetles comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and their newest drummer, Tommy Moore.
After the auditions were over it was announced that Cass & The Casanovas would be accompanying Billy Fury on his upcoming tour.
But a few weeks later Parnes contacted Williams again needing a band to back one of his other performers on a short tour of Scotland. The Silver Beetles were available and before they knew it they were headed north to start their very first set of tour dates, as the backing group for one Johnny Gentle (also born in Liverpool as John Askew)..
To mark the occasion, the boys decided that they, like their headlining lead frontman, should adopt stage names. Stuart was now ‘Stuart De Stael,’ George was now ‘Carl Harrison’, and Paul adopted the name ‘Paul Ramone.’ John may have called himself ‘Long John’ but in later years he denied ever doing it. Tommy Moore refused to join in the youthful role-playing.
On arrival in Scotland, Gentle was initially put off by the scruffy appearance of his new backing band, but 30 minutes of rehearsals convinced him that they were something special.
On 20 May 1960, The Silver Beetles made their professional touring debut at Alloa Town Hall. The running order that night established the format of the show for the rest of the tour. The Silver Beetles would open the show with six numbers, then Johnny Gentle would come on and do his spot, and after he left the stage, the boys would close things out with six more numbers.
The Alloa gig would be followed by shows in Inverness, Aberdeen, Deith, Forres and Nairne.
By the 29th May the boys were back on a train to Liverpool, exhausted and broke as they had long burnt through the small expenses allowance and fees they’d been paid.
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You can find out more about the tour in the Before They Were Beatles book or in Episode 13 of Season One of the Before They Were Beatles podcast.
Johnny Gentle’s story before and after his time on stage with The Beatles is detailed in the new episode of The Forgotten Beatles podcast.
Alan
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Podcast Updates
The latest Forgotten Beatles episode is now live and can be found on your favorite podcast platform, or directly right HERE.
This month the spotlight falls on The Quarrymen’s tea-chest bass player, Len Garry,
and the headline act from the first tour described above - Johnny Gentle.
The Savage Young Beatles
The boys in The Savage Young Beatles recently got to play on the reconstruction of the Cavern stage at The Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool.
From the posts on social media and the comments on the band’s Facebook page it was another rocking gig.
If you missed them there and are in the Liverpool area or just in the UK next month, then make sure to see them at their upcoming gig at The Woodlands in Widnes on 8th November.
Beatles Books From My Shelves
“Johnny Gentle and The Beatles First Ever Tour”
Johnny Gentle & The Beatles First Ever Tour with Liverpool writer Ian Forsyth.
Published in 1998 by Merseyrock Publications, It’s a short (around 90 pages) light read of Johnny’s recollections of the Scottish tour mentioned above. As the book’s description on his official website put it -
Johnny views his days as a Parnes pop star with great affection... How many people would have loved to have had the same experiences he had as a very young man? After all he is the only person to have toured with the Beatles as his backing band. Johnny has for a long time wished to record his adventures with the pre Fab Four and has now co-operated closely with co-author Ian Forsyth to give as good account as possible of those eight days in May 1960. The authors however do stress that the following book is based a lot on Johnny’s memory and may not be 100% accurate but whose memory is after 34 years?
Print copies seem pretty hard to find (I was lucky enough to find a signed copy about 10 years ago after many years of looking). When preparing for the recent podcast that featured Johny’s story I couldn’t find any available at the usual online sources although there is a Kindle eBook version available at just $6.99.
Beatles In Comics
TV Comic #674 - 14 November 1964
I only came across this Beatles comics appearance recently. Strictly speaking it’s not an appearance of the Fab Four as characters, but rather a fun example of how the influence of the group in pop-culture just two years after the release of their first single.
As the title suggests, the British weekly TV Comic, published by Polystyle Publications, was an anthology title with a collection of stories based on popular TV shows of the time. It ran for a total of 1697 issues from 1951 to 1984. Starting in 1960 the front page featured new stories and adventures featuring the classic cartoon character Popeye and his supporting cast.
In this story in the first panel we discover that Popeye’s Grandpa listens to The Beatles, and is a Ringo fan too. It’s a fun story reflecting not only different musical tastes across a family group, but also the cross-generational appeal of the Fab Four.
(As an aside this issue of TV Comic also includes the first ever Dr. Who comics story.)
Rock out to our BTWB Playlists
If you would like to listen to full versions of the songs mentioned in either the main Before They Were Beatles podcast, or the new Forgotten Beatles series you can now find them on my new YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@AlanPorterWriter
Or you can check out the Before They Were Beatles playlist on Spotify at
What Else Is Alan Working On?
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See you next time.
Alan J. Porter
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