Pete Best

[fuzzyste]

Ah, a Pete Best thread. Here's my moment.

The Pete Best Band's 2008 album Haymans Green is probably my favourite solo Beatle album. It's not earth-shatteringly original but it's really surprisingly excellent.

If you love The Beatles you should definitely give it a whirl.

It does NOT, surprisingly, limit itself to the early Merseybeat sound (although there's a couple of tracks that sound from that era). Most tracks sound like they're from the Rubber Soul/Revolver/early psych era. And they're all originals, and great songs in their own right, no Rock'n'roll retreads or Tony Sheridan-type material.

Here's the entire album:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6xFy_IHEZUwXAAklStodJAnziBpt17fT

When I first listened to it I was astonished at the quality of the songwriting, but felt it was just a tad too saccharine, but after the songs sank in a bit I no longer think that, there is some really well thought out songwriting here, albeit entirely derivative.

Here's the catch however: Although our Pete supposedly co-writes all the songs, it's fairly evident to me his input was minimal. Also, sorry Pete, but your drumming is the worst thing about the record. It's incredibly basic.

And get this: he's not the only drummer in the band. His younger half-brother Roag Best (offspring of his mother Mona, who ran the Casbah Club, and Neil Aspinall, Beatles roadie who ended up running Apple) for some reason only known to the band ALSO plays the drums on a separate kit along with Pete. Simultaneously. And to no obvious purpose given the ridiculously simplistic drum patterns throughout the album.

So to finish off @dontpaintyourteeth's joke - Pete wasn't even the Best drummer in the Pete Best Band.

Here's their absolutely bizarre, redundant two-drummer set up, playing their song 'Gone' on the TV show 'Loose Women':

(For some reason bandmember Paul Parry has overdubbed the CD version over the TV audio)

A bit about the Haymans Green album cover: The Beatles' outtakes LP Anthology 1 featured artwork which ripped out Pete Best's face from the early promotional poster of the band in the foreground, in keeping with the 'let's erase Pete from our history' attitude the rest of the Beatles have taken over the decades. The Haymans Green album cover is simply the missing portion of the poster with Pete's face on it. Ha! Take that, Beatles!

That tune is basically Beatles through an AI generator. Love it tbh

[benjitz]

Ha, yeah, agreed. It's the only one which really veers too close to any particular song of the fab four's though. (Simplified version of And Your Bird Can Sing guitar solo over speedy Pachelbel/Canon chord sequence). It's the only video footage of them I can find though.

This is probably their best song:

[benjitz]

I don't think Pete would have been that much off worse than the other Beatles in the long run really if you tot up the things in life that matter. Maybe, if all you care about is superficial things like money and stardom. But with the film star looks he had, and the old "hey babe, I was a member of The Beatles once, you know" chatup line at his disposal he musta done a hella lotta shagging.

Money can't buy you love, as someone once put it, I forget who.

[The Culture Bunker]

I think the truth is that he was an OK drummer who could get away with playing live, but didn't stand up to the scrutiny of the recording studio.
The other 3 probably already had doubts, but George Martin's rejection of him sealed the deal.
Plus getting Ringo in seemed like quite a coup at the time, as he was already a 'name' on the Liverpool scene.

Well, George Martin was hardly sold on Ringo either, hence getting a session bod in to play drums on 'Love Me Do'.

[DrGreggles]

Well, George Martin was hardly sold on Ringo either, hence getting a session bod in to play drums on 'Love Me Do'.

He hadn't heard Ringo at that point though, and had already booked a session drummer as he didn't even know Best had been fired.

[SpiderChrist]

I got cornered in my local by two Liverpool chaps who spotted my "Stamp Out The Beatles" sweatshirt. Apparently they know Roag Best. I was a bit pissed and the conversation got awkward when I said I didn't rate Pete Best as a drummer. Not seen them since, and don't wear that sweatshirt to my local in case I get bored to death by two scousers spotted by them again.

[LordMorgan]

Those Pete best songs posted are fucking great

I had absolutely no idea

Thanks again benjitz

The album isn't on Spotify tho

I'll have to purchase the compact disk

I think my car has a dc player th r last time I looked

[The Culture Bunker]

He hadn't heard Ringo at that point though, and had already booked a session drummer as he didn't even know Best had been fired.

Didn't they record a version with Ringo, then shortly afterwards again with the session drummer?

[DrGreggles]

Didn't they record a version with Ringo, then shortly afterwards again with the session drummer?

Other way round.
Andy White(?) is on the single, but it was rerecorded with Ringo for the Please Please Me album.

[The Culture Bunker]

Other way round.
Andy White(?) is on the single, but it was rerecorded with Ringo for the Please Please Me album.

Checking my copy of 'Revolution in the Head' - that has it the other way round. Starr featured on the initial version, Martin wasn't happy with the drums and they went back a week later to try again with Andy White.

[markburgle]

RITH has been superseded by other research since, MacDonald was quoting flawed sources

[kalowski]

If we trust the Wikipedia

"Love Me Do" was recorded by the Beatles on three occasions with three drummers at EMI Studios at 3 Abbey Road in London:

The Beatles' first recording session, on 6 June 1962, with Pete Best on drums.[14] This version (previously thought to be lost) is available on Anthology 1.
Second recording session, 4 September 1962. In August, Best had been replaced with Ringo Starr. Producer George Martin did not approve of Best's drumming for studio work. It was the norm at that time to have a specialist studio drummer who knew the ways of studio work. The decision to fire Best was not Martin's. The Beatles with Starr recorded a version at EMI Studios.[15] They recorded "Love Me Do" in 15 takes. This version with Starr is available on Past Masters, as well as on the 2023 expanded edition of the compilation album 1962–1966 and the flip side of the "Now and Then" single.
Third recording session, 11 September 1962. A week later, The Beatles returned to the same studio and they made a recording of "Love Me Do" with session drummer Andy White on drums. Starr was relegated to playing tambourine. As tambourine is not present on the 4 September recording; this is the easiest way to distinguish between the Starr and White recordings. The Andy White version is available on Please Please Me.[16]
First issues of the single, released on Parlophone in the UK on 5 October 1962, featured the Ringo Starr version, prompting Mark Lewisohn to later write: "Clearly, the 11 September version was not regarded as having been a significant improvement after all".[17]

[LordMorgan]

Love me do is cack no matter who's drumming on it

[Proactive]

That "Best of The Beatles" album is the greatest piece of music marketing of all time, as I must have said here before. I wonder how many people actually bought it assuming it was the real deal.

[Keebleman]

Love Me Do was queried as a choice for first single even by some of The Beatles' relatives, but I've been reading some accounts by people who remember when it first came out and they say, even if they weren't that taken by it, that it sounded like absolutely nothing else around.  Marty Wilde said his reaction was, "Wow, these guys have a sound."

Its chart performance reflects its oddness.  It only got to number 17, and a single that did that would be expected to remain in the Top 50 for seven or eight weeks, but Love Me Do hung around for 18 weeks.  People were intrigued by it.

[famethrowa]

Love Me Do was queried as a choice for first single even by some of The Beatles' relatives, but I've been reading some accounts by people who remember when it first came out and they say, even if they weren't that taken by it, that it sounded like absolutely nothing else around.  Marty Wilde said his reaction was, "Wow, these guys have a sound."

I guess it worked as a Trojan horse to not scare everyone off with too much of that crazy rock and roll first up.

Back to Best, a quick shoutout to Melbourne's favourite terrible comedy cabaret band of the early 80's, The Pete Best Beatles:

[benjitz]

Those Pete best songs posted are fucking great

I had absolutely no idea

Thanks again benjitz

The album isn't on Spotify tho

I'll have to purchase the compact disk

I think my car has a dc player th r last time I looked

I'll get the girls to press you up a vinyl copy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfZEur2c0As

'Tis rather excellent isn't it? Just a little short, I think, although probably about the same length as an early Beatles album.

It's a great mood-lifter too.

I have no idea what happened to the band, it's a shame they didn't record any further albums after that though, given its quality. I would have definitely gone to seem them live in this incarnation, but only discovered them a little too late.

[TheAssassin]

I know there is a massive Beatles thread

But I feel this needs a new one

Pete best eh??

The last month or so I watched a brilliant interview with him from 2016

Time has passed and he has came to terms with things ( the anthology pay checks would have helped his new found serenity no doubt)

Can't remember where I saw the interview, but when the Anthology came out, Paul McCartney called him and told him he is entitled to a few quid as he drums on a few tracks.

[Keebleman]

I don't think it was Macca himself, though I too have seen reports stating that. I assume it would have been Neil Aspinall, whose relationship with the Bests post-Pete's P45 is a fascinating (to me) mystery (also to me: I have no idea if or how often he kept in touch with Mona or Pete or his son).

[Menu]

I don't think it was Macca himself, though I too have seen reports stating that. I assume it would have been Neil Aspinall, whose relationship with the Bests post-Pete's P45 is a fascinating (to me) mystery (also to me: I have no idea if or how often he kept in touch with Mona or Pete or his son).

Couldn't they have chosen someone who hadn't shagged his mum ffs.

[benjitz]

In 1995, the surviving Beatles released Anthology 1, which featured ten tracks with Best as drummer, including songs from the Decca and Parlophone auditions. Best received a substantial windfall – between £1 million and £4 million – from the sales, although he was not interviewed for the book or the documentaries.[131][132] According to writer Philip Norman, the first time Best knew about the royalties due him for the use of those tracks "was a phone call" from Paul McCartney himself, "the one who'd been so keen to get rid of him" – the first time they'd spoken since it happened. "Some wrongs need to be righted," Paul told him. "There's some money here that's owing to you and you can take it or leave it." Best took it.[133] However, Best asserts that it was Neil Aspinall and not McCartney who phoned him. "Paul McCartney claims he called me but he didn't," Best told The Irish Times.[134]

Couldn't they have chosen someone who hadn't shagged his mum ffs.

I've been thinking about how bizarre it is that Pete's stepfather carried on working for and being employed The Beatles for decades but with them having no contact with Pete themselves and how that was handled, both at the time and in later years.

Aspinall was waiting for Best downstairs in Epstein's NEMS record shop after the dismissal meeting. The two went to the Grapes pub on Mathew Street, the same street as the Cavern Club, where the group had played.[76] Aspinall was furious at the news, insisting to Best that he would resign from the Beatles.[77] Best strongly advised him to remain with the group. Aspinall's relationship with Mona Best (and their three-week-old baby, Roag) was ended. At the next concert Aspinall asked Lennon why they had fired Best, to which he replied "It's got nothing to do with you, you're only the driver."[77]

Oh Aspinall's not such a bad fellow then, and stayed on at Pete's insistence. But wait:

However, in a 2007 interview, Aspinall provided Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn with a distinctly different version of events, saying that he was physically present when Epstein sacked Best, that he told Best unprompted that he planned to continue working for the band, and that on his first subsequent encounter with the other band members, their first question to him was how Best had taken being sacked.[19] Aspinall stayed with the band, ending his affair with Best's mother, a relationship that had led to the birth of baby Vincent "Roag" Best. Aspinall denied the story for years before publicly acknowledging that he was indeed Roag's father.[20]

Sounds like Aspinall was more than willing to wash his hands of Pete, his girlfriend, and his newly born son to carry on working for The Beatles. Epstein had issues with Mona too, as it appears she carried on trying to manage them and scrutinising/criticising Epstein's gig bookings after The Beatles had already signed a management contract with him. The Wikipedia article on Pete Best has lots more on this.

What kind of guy shits all over his family to appease his employer?

Can't argue with his financial cost/benefit analysis, to be fair, but still.


Had no idea Pete was suicidal by the late 1960s though, as the others would ritually be cruel about him in the press, eventually libelling him. If they'd said nothing at all, it would still have been shit, but he could have at least felt a bit happy for their success after some time had passed. It's a really sad and shitty story innit.

Anyway, he released Haymans Green so had the last laugh, of course.

[benjitz]

Love Me Do was queried as a choice for first single even by some of The Beatles' relatives, but I've been reading some accounts by people who remember when it first came out and they say, even if they weren't that taken by it, that it sounded like absolutely nothing else around.  Marty Wilde said his reaction was, "Wow, these guys have a sound."

Yeah, absolutely, the song is indeed cack, but it was the sound of it that was novel. Particularly its northern Englishness, the harmony singing, the absence of trying to sound like Elvis or any affecting any sort of American accent as so many did back then, and the coarse and simple harmonica riff. This is what sold the record I reckon (plus it's been alleged Epstein's NEMS bought tons of copies...)

[kalowski]

Roag.

[Art Bear]

What kind of guy shits all over his family to appease his employer?

I don't have much time for Aspinall but calling the Bests 'his family' is drawing a long bow. He was the 19-year-old lodger who got his landlady up the duff.

[benjitz]

The Bests were more his family than The Beatles were. Yeah, they'd just been signed, thus guaranteeing a fair amount of gigs to come but he coulda just got a roadie job with another band if he had a shred of decency. I'm actually surprised the Beatles didn't sack him too for a clean break.

I also thought I read somewhere yesterday a contradictory story saying he stayed with Mona until 1968 before splitting from her, but I can't find it now, unless I misread or misunderstood...

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

There was a series of YouTube videos called The Beatles with Pete Best (with most of the videos missing), that just replace Ringo's drums with what Pete Best would have played instead.

It's definitely a one-note joke, but it's a great note.

[Proactive]

Poor old Pete!

[mojo filters]

That tune is basically Beatles through an AI generator. Love it tbh

I understand what you mean, but in the broader context of the music of the decade, I'd consider that particular song far more of a Ray Davies/Kinks pastiche, by-the-numbers etc.

The other tune is obviously more original and sounds slightly more authentic as an original standalone track, but it's still pretty lifeless from a performance and production perspective.

I enjoyed the interview, although I've seen and heard him before as all good Beatles fans will have, I honestly didn't remember him as the utter charisma vacuum pushing the life out of that studio!