Starting in 1923, the family sold musical instruments at Hessy's, which was close to the Mersey Tunnel. I was a Quarryman."įrank Hessy belonged to a Russian Jewish family, the Hesselbergs, who came to Liverpool to avoid persecution. I set the drums up, put a record on, played along to it, and he said, 'Come down and meet the lads.' I went to Eric's house and that was it. I went to Frank Hessy's and bought a set of drums for ten shillings down and then ten shillings a week. ![]() "I used to play on the furniture to jazz records," Colin writes, "and once I was an apprentice upholsterer, my parents said that if I could pay for some drums, I could have them. He didn't attend Quarry Bank High School-he had already left his school and had a job, and Eric Griffiths knew he had a drum-kit. Colin has just written Pre:Fab!, a memoir about his time in The Quarrymen. That was the career path of so many UK bands, and the way The Quarrymen morphed into The Beatles was typical.Īctually, John Lennon's Quarrymen were a little unusual in that they had a drummer, Colin Hanton. They still wouldn't be able to afford them outright but they could sign up and pay by instalments. ![]() As they earned more money in their day jobs, they could buy electric instruments and amplifiers, crank up the volume, and play rock'n'roll. The teens played cheap acoustic guitars, tea-chest basses, and washboards with thimbles. It was pioneered by Lonnie Donegan ( "Rock Island Line") and Chas McDevitt ( "Freight Train"), and it encouraged teenagers to form their own skiffle groups, which owed as much to the chandlers as the instrument stores. That was one reason why skiffle music was an attraction. (NEMS and Rushworth's were on Whitechapel while Hessy's was only a few steps from Whitechapel on Stanley Street.)īecause the UK had been ravaged by the Second World War, British teenagers did not have much money in the mid-'50s. The locations are so crucial to the Beatles story, and indeed to the whole Merseybeat picture, that 1961–62 could be called The Whitechapel Years. They signed their first management contract at NEMS and Pete Best was sacked there. They heard new US singles they wanted to cover at NEMS. The Beatles bought instruments at Hessy's and Rushworth's. You could trace that famous walk, so why not put footprints on the ground as a tourist attraction? Completing a triangle with Hessy's and Rushworth's was Brian Epstein's record store, NEMS-now the site of the new Forever 21 fashion store, and without even a plaque or a sign to indicate that Brian Epstein walked from NEMS to the Cavern on Novemto hear The Beatles for the first time. Close to that was Rushworth & Dreaper, selling records, tape recorders, and instruments-now a pawnbrokers. Only a couple of hundred yards from the Cavern was Frank Hessy's music store-now covered in scaffolding. ![]() You can visit John Lennon's and Paul McCartney's childhood homes, and you can step into the early '60s as you go into the Casbah or the restored Cavern.īut not everything is being repackaged for today's tourists. Its heritage, both maritime and musical, is everywhere. ![]() You wouldn't think so if you come to Liverpool. Hartley began his novel The Go-Between with the much-quoted line that the past is a foreign country. Buy, sell, and discover more about your favorite instruments. New to Reverb? Sign up for free to join the world's best marketplace for music gear.
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