this is a uh uh do I hold this up now okay oh okay all right we're going to take a look now
at a picture of The Beatles in 1960. uh John Lennon George Harrison and Paul McCartney of
course are easily recognized but the fourth member of the group doesn't really look much like Ringo
Starr and that of course is because he is not uh he is Pete best he was the original drummer in
this group until he was bumped for Ringo that took place in 1962 he is now out of the music business
and is making a special appearance here tonight we're pleased to welcome Mr Pete best ladies
thank you he's gonna have balloons to touch this thing no there's no that's no no balloons we had
a guy here the other night who went up in a lawn chair with the balloons attached
to him uh welcome to the program that you're honestly one person I never thought I would get
the opportunity to meet but you're somebody that I've known about uh well since 1962 essentially
um let's just uh start at the beginning what how did how did the relationship come about
between yourself and John Lennon and George Harrison and uh Ringo Starr well very shortly
um I haven't first met the guys when they opened my mother's club to Casper way back in 1958 when
they were known as The Quarrymen now and there was John George and Paul another guy called Ken Brown
but we needed a group to open the club Saturday night this is a club that your mother operated
that's right yeah under the basement of a house and how old were you at that time oh
I'd be about 16. and uh the the other guys were roughly the same age also yeah you know we were
high school kids yeah yeah but uh funny thing was the club needed some decorating
so Dion and his wisdom for those of you who don't know Jim was a little
bit short-sighted uh we were painting a Club Seal in Black and it was supposed to be matte
plate since young did it in gloss paint and uh that was it you know so when um now
the you and the rest of the guys were helping to finish or fix up this club in order to open it for
business they came over and were painting and so forth that's right yeah now when did you get to be
part of the uh uh the musical group well uh Justin aside I joined them uh August 1960 simply because
of the fact that they disappeared and they went and had an audition for a guy called Larry Barnes
and by this time they changed the names of the silver Beetles and there was a guy
who joined him called Steve Sutcliffe who very tragically died a couple years later
but uh after this particular tour when they went up to Scotland there was a guy called
Tommy Moore who was playing drums with him and he came back and he said whoa he said I've had
enough I said I'm quitting so Paul knew that I'd been uh playing drums and uh he said Pete
you know we got the offer to go to Germany so he said he interested I said yeah very much so and
so come down and audition which is what I did do and went down the next day bashed off about
six numbers and five minutes later they said yeah Pete you're in yeah so uh what was the extent of
your musical background at that point I mean you were good enough to pass the audition obviously
but what did you had you done much drumming before Oh for about uh two years on enough I
had a small combo my own you know which is like a fun group yeah but nothing sort of professionally
based because uh I knew the guys had to go back to job go back to school yeah so now when you went on
the tour to Germany was this the beginning of the feeling that this thing may go right through the
roof or was this still a little earlier no when we went over to Germany and we've been out there for
about a month and we suddenly realized you know hey chair Maloney says are going wild about us and
uh there was always an inner feeling Dave which it was funny to explain but we knew you know that uh
you know in fact we had a saying a lot of people don't know this but uh we used to
get on stage and we used to stand there you know and say you know where are we going guys
to the top yeah that was the inner belief which we had arrest ourselves right and it was funny but we
knew that somewhere along the line we were going to make it big now truthfully wise I don't think
even they would have been visited that we want to become the phenomena they were yeah uh were
you close to these gentlemen at the time were you all really good friends did you get to be a really
tight unit oh sure yeah I mean you know when you're playing take Hamburg for instance seven
hours a night seven days a week here you know 15 minute break if you were lucky or something like
that uh we grew up together yeah you know a lot of hard sounds a lot of fun together so we were
close compact unit okay let me uh pause here for a second Pete uh we're gonna uh run a commercial
or something and uh we'll be back to continue this discussion with Mr Pizza welcome back to the show
this uh gentleman is uh Pete best and we're uh talking about his uh was the drummer for The
Beatles prior to a Ringo Starr you would went on the tour to Germany and you were their drummer for
two years at least yeah uh and you you mentioned you guys were all pretty good friends now how did
the the did you have any hint that you were going to be leaving the group no that was the amazing
thing Dave uh when the incident happened uh you know it just happened completely out the blue yeah
there was no you know foregone and it's all about it it just uh it was called into Brian's office
and he turned around I could tell he was agitated simply because of the fact that he was you know
pacing up and down and you know sort of biting his fingernails so to speak but uh after about three
or four minutes he turned around and said Pete I've got bad news for you he said uh in a nutshell
you know the boys want you out and they want Ringo starring well I was completely shell-shocked by
this Dave uh couldn't sort of get my mind together or you know whatever you know trying to sort of
get things into perspective did you then go to talk to any members of the group uh John or Paul
or no no the funny thing about it was uh after I was kicked out very shortly after that I joined a
group called Lee Curtis and the All-Stars and on two occasions I played on the same bill as
them one was at the cabin in Liverpool and the other was at the Majestic ballroom and we were
playing support to them on these occasions and it meant that as we were coming off stage The
Beatles were going on stage but nothing was ever mentioned there was no acknowledgment
nobody said sorry Peter we'll talk to you later about it or it was business or nothing
yeah and from the the time that you got let go to the time that did you know Ringo at all
had you met him before sure yeah Bingo and I were very good friends yeah so from the time
you got let go to the time that they just became an unbelievable success what what
amount of time was that oh uh basically they had a record in the English charts
whether the Montessori being kicked out and after that it became history everyone knows
about it now what does that do to a person uh what is their resentment there is it uh
I mean first you had these guys were your friends yeah and suddenly they're not your
friends that's tough enough but to suddenly see them uh skyrocketed like that not to mention the
economics involved in the thing thank you were you angry at them mad at him no just in a birthday uh
they caused me a lot of hardship grief you know Financial embarrassment but uh I persevered with
my own lifestyle and you know that was strong enough in character to sort of turn around and
say okay no matter what happened in the past let's forget about it okay and at this present
moment in time I've managed to retain my identity in my own sweet way did you uh continue in music
did you mentioned you were with another band did that uh I mean at that time there was a
good chance that a band coming out of Liverpool could be a big success many were oh sure yeah
um diet and mediocre success and I got a couple of Records in the church you know a couple of
TV spots nothing fantastic yeah but uh the Gap was always widening you know the Beatles were up
there somewhere down on the lower rank side was slotted in somewhere yeah so then um what you're
no longer in music what happened after you used to mentioned that these uh had some other hits or
smaller hits what minor successes what did you do then well uh up to about 1968 we persevered
did it sort of America in Canada had a couple of albums released over here but uh unfortunately
through no circumstances of our room we had to go back home and we found when we got back home
that things had drastically changed you know we'd been away for about nine months we got a lot older
and the scene had changed and when we tried to break back into the normal routine it wasn't there
yeah you know we sort of persevered but uh it just didn't happen well here is the album uh we'll
pause here for station identification we'll be right back uh Pete best is here in a minute we're
going to take our second look at the national fancy food and confection convection convention
you know what I'm talking about it was held here a couple of weeks ago we were all there uh and I
want to ask you about the album the other thing I wanted to to ask you was what was the reason
ultimately given to you for the change at the position of drummer uh in a nutshell Dave jealousy
um we found out afterwards uh at the meeting they turned around and said that it wasn't a
good enough drummer but consequently when we saw the turn around a lot of people you know
found out that jealousy was creeping into the ACT there was actually uh some some demonstrations
and people in the streets yelling and they were upset at the the time it was a nice feeling you
know to realize that I had true loyal support yes but uh there was a hell of a fan reaction
yeah Billboards and everything uh and anyway the album which we alluded to in the last half hour
called silver Beetles what is this essentially when people put this on their machines at home
what are they going to hear well what they're going to hear is uh hopefully so is the Decker
rotation material which was recorded way back generally the first 1962 it was the first
major attempt for the Beatles Till under English recording contract and never before heard as far
as it could have been bootleg versions but this is the the one which everyone's going to go for
okay well I certainly hope this is uh is a big success for it it was a pleasure meeting you sir
it's a an interesting pale I'm sorry it didn't work out better for you though thank you sir
thank you