Lennon meets McCartney

Undoubtedly the most important gig The Quarry Men ever played was at St Peter's Church Garden Fete, in Woolton, near the River Mersey. It was at this historic performance on July 6th 1957 that a 15-year-old Paul McCartney first saw Lennon and his Quarry Men perform. Years later, McCartney naturally remembered the day. " I had a mate at school... Ivan Vaughan. We were born on exactly the same date in Liverpool, so we were great mates. One day he said, 'Do you want to come to the Woolton Village Fete? ' I said, 'Why? ' and he said, 'Well, I've got some friends and they'll be there.' That was where he was from, Woolton. And I said, 'Yeah, well, alright.' So we went along one Saturday..." ¹⁸

Lennon too recalled that day. " There was a friend of mine called Ivan who lived at the back of my house, and he went to the same school as Paul McCartney, the Liverpool Institute... It was through Ivan that I first met Paul. Seems that he knew Paul was always dickering about in music and thought he would be a good lad to be in the group. So one day when we were playing at Woolton, he brought him along. The Quarry Men were playing on a raised platform and there was a good crowd because it was a warm, sunny day. I'd been kingpin up till then. I was the singer and the leader. But now I thought: if I take him on, what will happen? He was good. He also looked like Elvis."

Lennon knew that he had to make an important decision about adding a new person to the group. Should he get in someone new who was better than the existing people, or maintain his position by not making a change and keeping the weaker members? He decided he had to get McCartney in and make his group stronger. " Paul had bought a trumpet, " Lennon remembered, " and had this wild theory that he'd actually learn how to play the oldie 'When The Saints Go Marching In'. He just blew away as hard as he could, drowning out everything we were trying to do. He thought he was doing a great job on the tune - but we didn't recognise any of it." ¹⁹

Varying accounts of McCartney meeting Lennon have been detailed in a number of books -some may even have influenced the recollections of those actually there at the time. Most agree that McCartney played Eddie Cochran's 'Twenty Flight Rock' and Gene Vincent's 'Be-Bop-A-Lula' for Lennon and his band. It remains uncertain what guitar McCartney used - an issue complicated by McCartney's left-handedness. Whose guitar did he play? Did he bring his own, or did he invert Lennon's? From the drastically differing accounts given by the five members of The Quarry Men present on the day, no certain answers can be given.

Hanton recalls little about McCartney playing a guitar. Davis doesn't remember much either, but says that if someone had played 'Twenty Flight Rock' impeccably in front of him he'd certainly have remembered. " I think I must have gone to the toilet when this great moment happened, " ²⁰ he laughs. Shotton doesn't think McCartney had his guitar with him. " Why would he bring his guitar? He didn't come to play. I think Paul said, 'Well, I could play the guitar, ' and John said, 'Well go ahead and play this one.' So Paul, being left-handed, took all the strings off and put them back the other way around, and then played 'Twenty Flight Rock' or whatever it was. Then when he'd done all that, John got the guitar back and it was strung left-handed - but John had seen where all the notes were and he left it that way to learn...John was hungry for information on how to play guitar-he couldn't play very well, he didn't know how to play chords, and Paul came along and knew all that." ²¹

Griffiths doesn't think Paul played a guitar that day. " And I definitely don't think Paul switched John's strings around. Being a guitar player, I think I would have been aware of that. I was around all of the time, and I certainly don't think that happened." ²² Tea-chest bass player Len Garry's recollection is that Ivan Vaughan persuaded McCartney to ride his bike home from the Garden Fete and get his guitar, having told McCartney there would be a jam session before the evening show.

Perhaps McCartney himself can remember? Recently, he gave this account. " I went back... in the mid-day interval that they had, to the church hall, and they were having a few beers. I was a little bit young for that, because John was one-and-a-half years older than me. But they were just hanging out, and someone had a guitar. At some point I thought, 'well, I've got to have a go on this'. What I used to have to do was turn it upside down, being left-handed - no one would ever let me change the strings... And because I'd done this rather a lot with my mates' guitars, I could play a couple of songs upside down - providing they only had three chords. So I played 'Twenty Flight Rock', and the great thing was I knew all the words to it - and this was true status. Anyone who knew all the words to a thing was quids in. I remember John looking at me, like, wow, this guy's got something here." ²³

The debate will no doubt continue between the five surviving Quarry Men about what actually happened on the day Lennon met McCartney. What was important was that McCartney obviously left a lasting impression on Lennon with his ability to play guitar using " real" guitar chords in a standard guitar tuning, and his knowledge of the lyrics to 'Be-Bop-A-Lula' and 'Twenty Flight Rock'. Two weeks later Shotton by chance ran into McCartney while riding his bike in Wool ton. Shotton said, " By the way... John and I have been talking it over and we both agreed we'd like to ask you if you want to join the group." ²⁴ McCartney said yes.