The moment George Harrison joined The Quarrymen
The Liverpool of George Harrison’s youth was one of rapid transformation. The 1950s saw a complete overhaul of the city’s urban fabric. Huge swathes of it had been destroyed during the Blitz, and housing stock was in short supply, a problem further complicated by the baby boom of the post-war years. Houses, offices, shops and hastily-built council blocks like Muirhead Avenue sprang up as a result, altering the face of the city forever. It was this new Liverpool George Harrison was navigating when he was introduced to The Quarrymen on February 6th, 1958.
The Quarrymen had already been together some years by the time Harrison arrived. Originally called the Blackjacks, the group was founded by John Lennon in the wake of the ’50s skiffle boom. The initial line-up consisted of Lennon and his school friend, Griffiths, on guitars, Pete Shotton on washboard, and Bill Smith on tea chest bass. By the time Lennon met Paul McCartney, the band – now known as The Quarrymen – had performed at various school dances, parties and skiffle contests across the city.
McCartney made his live debut with The Quarrymen on October 18th, 1957, at the New Clubmoor Hall. It’s said the new guitairst slightly embarrassed himself by playing the opening guitar intro to their song ‘Raunchy’ over and over again. By this time, The Quarrymen had started playing rock ‘n’ roll records from America and erased most of the skiffle standards from their setlist. This, coupled with Paul’s excitable stage antics, convinced the band to search for a new lead guitairst. Paul, bless his heart, suggested his school friend George Harrison.
This is where the details get a little sketchy. The exact date of the meeting is up for debate, with former Quarrymen offering a plethora of potential dates and locations. Harrison’s mother even claimed her son was introduced to Lennon and McCartney in a fish and chip shop. Of the meeting, Harrison would later recall: “I’d been invited to see [The Quarrymen] play several times by Paul but for some reason never got around to it before. “I remember being very impressed with John’s big thick sideboards and trendy Teddy Boy clothes,” he continued. “In a way, all that emotional rough stuff was simply a way for him to help separate the men from the boys, I think. I was never intimidated by him. Whenever he had a go at me, I just gave him a little bit of his own right back.”
Harrison’s age – he was 15 at the time – made Lennon uneasy. After being informed his friend was simply too young to join the band, McCartney organised a second meeting on the top floor of a double-decker bus. After getting to know Harrison a bit better, Lennon gave in to McCartney’s nagging and allowed him to join The Quarrymen as lead guitarist. It was a pivotal moment for George and for The Quarrymen. All that remained was to work out how the hell Harrison was supposed to play “lead” guitar in a band with four guitarists.
Lennon and McCartney did their best to help, urging Griffiths to play bass instead of guitar, only for him to refuse. He was subsequently fired by the band’s then-manager, Nigel Walley. Around the same time, Quarrymen member Len Garry was struck down with tubercular meningitis and left the group to recuperate, never to return. That March, Paul purchased an Elpico amplifier with two inputs. He and Harrison promptly fitted their guitars with electric pickups, electrifying The Quarrymen’s sound.
The following June, Harrison joined The Quarrymen for a studio session, during which they recorded two songs (a McCartney original and a rendition of Buddy Holly’s ‘That’ll Be The Day’) straight to tape using a single microphone placed in the centre of the room. Shortly after the session, Colin Hanton – by that point the sole surviving member of Lennon’s original Quarrymen lineup – quit the band following a dispute, leaving Lennon, McCartney and Harrison as a guitar trio. Without a drummer, the group played only a few small shows, with Lennon taking a job at a restaurant while Paul and George went hitchhiking around Wales. Then, in the summer of 1959, Harrison bagged The Quarrymen a residency at the newly-opened Casbah Club, and by March 1960, the trio had come up with a new name: The Beatles.
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