The Day John Met Paul

[Annalina Lennon McCartney]

It was July 6, 1957...

While setting up their equipment to play, the Quarrymen's sometime tea-chest bass player, Ivan Vaughan, introduced the band to one of his classmates from Liverpool Institute, the 15-year-old Paul McCartney.

This historic occasion was the first time McCartney met John Lennon, a year his senior. McCartney wore a white jacket with silver flecks, and a pair of black drainpipe trousers.

The pair chatted for a few minutes, and McCartney showed Lennon how to tune a guitar - the instruments owned by Lennon and Griffiths were in G banjo tuning. McCartney then sang Eddie Cochran's Twenty Flight Rock and Gene Vincent's Be-Bop-A-Lula, along with a medley of songs by Little Richard. The rest is history.

Read more here:

http://www.beatlesbible.com/1957/07/06/john-lennon-meets-paul-mccar...

[BeatleBob]

Loved this BeatleGirl! And read the rest at the link you provided.

Some things I found:

John Lennon on Meeting Paul McCartney at the Woolton Fete:
"Paul met me the first day I did Gene Vincent's 'Be Bop a Lula' live onstage. Ivan Vaughan, a mutual friend of both of us, brought him to see my group, the Quarry Men. We met and we talked after the show. He was playing guitar backstage and doing 'Twenty Flight Rock' by Eddie Cochran, and I saw he had talent. After talking about all the music and artists we liked, I turned 'round, and right there at this first meeting I asked, 'Do you want to join our group?' And he looked down at his feet for a minute or so and said, 'Um, um, ah, yeah!'

It was Saturday, July 6th, 1956 and John Lennon‘s skiffle group, The Quarry Men, were playing Woolton Village Church Garden Fete. In the audience, lured along by his friend at the promise of lots of pretty girls to chat up, was a 15 year old Paul McCartney.

John Lennon‘s ability to get under people’s skin had caused several incidents at earlier Quarry Men gigs. At one of their first gigs, on Rosebury Street, they had been chased down the road and hid in a house until the police came to escort them home. At another gig at Wilson Hall, John Lennon found himself being chased down the road by two Teddy Boys, escaping by jumping on a moving bus.

By these standards, the Woolton Village Church Garden Fete gig was one the Quarry Men’s calmest, but the 15 year old Paul McCartney obviously impressed John Lennon when they were introduced. Firstly he could tune a guitar and wrote out the lyrics for “Be-Bop-A-Lula” and “Twenty Flight Rock” for Lennon.

Of the meeting John Lennon later said:

  I had a group, I was the leader. Meeting Paul meant making a decision about having him in the line-up. Was it good to make the group stronger by bringing in someone stronger than the ones we had, or let me be stronger.

John Lennon made the decision to let Paul McCartney in and as Paul cycled down the road, he was accosted by John Lennon‘s friend and fellow Quarry Man, Pete Shotton and told Paul McCartney that John Lennon wanted him to join The Quarry Men. It was, according to Paul McCartney, “as simple as that.”

[BeatleBob]

[BeatleBob]

[BeatleBob]

[BeatleBob]

[BeatleBob]

I don't know if it was divine intervention or if all the planets were aligned just right on July 6, 1957? All I know is on that day, it All Started! And we're so Grateful! :-)

[BeatleLuvr13]

Yeah! Thank you Ivan Vaughn for introducing Paul to John, and thank you Paul for introducing George to John! And thank you hamburg (not for deporting the underage kid and condoms fire kids) for booking The Beatles and The Hurricanes at  the same time for them to be good friends with Ringo and take interest in him!

[BeatleBob]

Yeah! You're So Right NowhereGirl13! Right On!! :-)

[BeatleNut9]

One of my managers at work came up to me on the 6th and proudly announced that it was Ringo's birthday. I followed her statement with "...tomorrow! However, today is the day John & Paul met!" Another co-worker of mine called me "so dedicated," heehee!

The next day, another co-worker came up to me & mentioned Ringo's birthday. The manager who had been wrong the day before made a comment about how everyone was "up on things." I guess she was bitter because she's in her 50s & we're both in our 20s & SHE was the one who was mistaken, hahaha. This manager is the same nut who told me that she smashed all of her Beatles records when the Monkees came out. Blek...stop trying to pretend you're a fan! LOL

[BeatleBob]

LOL! You are a Dedicated Beatles Fan BeatleNut! :-)) Yeah, I guess your manager was Bitter about her mistake! WOW! She smashed all of her Beatle Records when the Monkees came out?! The Monkees had a few very nice songs but, you can't compare them to The Beatles at all!! Really! She should stop trying to pretend she's a true Beatles fan! LOL!

[BeatleNut9]

You're a lovely exception, BB, but most first-generation fans like you are cruel to us younger fanatics. They think we're somehow less dedicated just because we didn't have the opportunity to be there or that we're stealing THEIR music. The Beatles' music belongs to the whole world! I can see why, though...if I was a first-generation fan, I'd probably have the same assumptions, but I promise you people like me are WAY more devoted than people like that manager! Ugh!

[Annalina Lennon McCartney]

I remember the first time I visited Strawberry Fields in Central Park, it was July 6, 2006... I *thought* it was Ringo's birthday, until I checked later on - nope, it was the 7th. It was special to me because I stumbled upon it, without knowing how to get there, but I knew I was there for a reason! Later on, I found out it was the anniversary of when John and Paul met... so that makes it even more special!

There is a group in NYC for Beatles fans, and what I can complain about is that when I ask if anyone is around my age on a message board, they reply saying : "Music knows no age."

So why is it when ever I meet someone who happens to be an older fan, they either look at me strangely (maybe they think I'm related to Yoko because of my Asian ethnicity) and they see how young I look, they need the reason to ask "What got you into The Beatles?" "Why do you like The Beatles???" I think it's so shallow for people to think that I should be into hip hop/rap or anime...

~ ~ ~

Additionally, people are just hostile AND judgmental - I accept this, even people who say they believe into the whole "Peace and Love" message that JPGR/The Beatles portray - the SAME ONES who hate Yoko and say all these mean things then say they want to physically assault her and say it's funny and that it sucks that someone missed a bullet, etc.

I think it's best just to create a Peace shield that won't let these people get in your way or ruin a single second of your life.

I am very devoted to my Beatles as well! Their music was there during my depression, even when people have put me down for loving them! I don't know why people want to crush others' spirits -- it's really unnecessary. I can never understand why there's a need to put other people down, even if they don't mean harm to you.

No one is perfect, but I think it's a person's responsibility when they are deliberately being arrogant and showing it off like they're a Queen Bitch! I've trailed off a bit here, but it's good to let off some steam. lol