Pete Best wants to bury the hatchet with Paul.

 It looks like an often forgotten member of the Beatles’ past wants to sit down and chat with Paul.  I like Pete Best.  I know that, if you have seen his show, you are at least familiar with his place in Beatle history.  His book outlines the early life with The Beatles, as well as their gigs at the intimate Casbah Club, and his, and his family’s, unique place in Beatle lore.  I like hearing Pete Best tell his stories.  Let me tell you the reason why though.  He’s hungry to tell them.  There is no B.S. or whitewashing with his stories, at least none that seem to be.  I get the feeling that his tales of being a Beatle are honest ones. 

It would be most interesting to be a fly on the wall during a conversation between Pete and Paul.  We can only imagine.  It seems though that Pete wants to simply do that, chat with his old mate and reminice about old times.  Hopefully he gets that chance.

Here’s what we’ve read.

After more than 40 years of silence between them, the forgotten Beatle, Pete Best, wants to bury the hatchet with Paul McCartney and chat about the old times.

The 65-year-old drummer, who was sacked just as the group were achieving fame, ended up doing shifts in a bread factory, stacking loaves in a delivery van. He could only look on as his bandmates become “bigger than Jesus”.

His sacking in manager Brian Epstein’s Liverpool office, which deprived him of millions and global fame of the right sort, is all in the past, he believes.

“We’re not getting any younger,” he said. “We know what we’ve done and we’re not going to think any worse of each other if we had a chat now. God bless us all: it was all 40-odd years ago.”

The drummer, whose family owned the Casbah Club in Liverpool which occasionally played host to Beatles shows in their infancy, has never been given an explanation about why he was sacked, although many theories abound.

Some have speculated that his musicianship was not up to scratch, that his hairstyle didn’t fit, that he was too popular with the fans for Lennon to bear, that he turned down Epstein’s advances, or that he was unreliable. Mr Best has dismissed all of these suggestions over the years.

In an interview with the Daily Mail he said that after the years of shock, disgruntlement and a suicide attempt, he now bears no grudges. “Some people expect me to be bitter and twisted, but I’m not. I feel very fortunate in my life. God knows what strains and stresses the Beatles must have been under.

“When I got kicked out of the Beatles, none of us knew what was going to happen. I know we went about saying we were going to be ‘bigger than Elvis’, but I didn’t believe it and I don’t think the others did either.”

The drummer left his group, the Blackjacks, to join the Beatles in August 1960 in order for them to fulfil a series of dates in Hamburg. Playing venues such as the Indra Club and the Kaiserkeller, they spent hours onstage honing their skills during a period in their career that was captured in the film Backbeat.

But after playing for two years – including on their first recordings for their Parlophone audition, an early version of “Love Me Do”, and the track “Besame Mucho” – he was dropped from the line-up and replaced by Ringo Starr.

Yet Mr Best now finds himself making money from the band after all these years. A number of the recordings he made with them featured on Anthology 1. They are said to have brought him more than £1m.

He also plays with the Pete Best Band, performing 90-minute sets of early Beatles tracks such as “Love Me Do” and “My Bonnie”, which the group released with singer Tony Sheridan.

Sir Paul was unavailable for comment about any potential reunions yesterday.

Source: UK Independent

7 Responses

  1. Interesting article! Wouldn’t he get any royalties also from the various releases of the Star Club tapes?

    Also, didn’t YOU meet Pete Best (if I recall the pic correctly). If so, what was your personal impression of him? Just curious.

  2. Yes. I did meet Pete Best, that is me with him in the picture. I actually got to meet him on my birthday. I couldn’t have asked for a better present. He seems like a really nice guy. He seemed humble, and joked quite a bit. He answered all our questions, and seemed to have a kind of “aww shucks” kind of attitude. He did say that he made a boatload of money from the Anthology release though. I’m not sure about the Star Club tapes…

    My meeting with him was a mix of “I’m the luckiest, and unluckiest guy in the world.” There was a kind of sadness to him, but certainly nothing negative about his experiences with The Beatles, at least none that I could see. He really seemed like a nice man. It’s a shame that him and Paul can’t sit down and at least relive the past. Maybe one day.

    • People tend to be selfish. You know what, to think that Beatles after all their glory did not think even a moment about the man who helped them that much at the start…
      They became so powerful and he, he was struggling!
      Sir Paul is one of the richest artists on the planet…
      Why they could not stop for the moment and say to each other “Hey, we hurt the guy, he deserves more than this”. They could promote his group, they could call him to participate in some performances, at least to be there with them a little so people would know about him and he would get more popularity. It wouldn’t cost them much.

      maybe that was a punishment for Mac when he got his woman to use and betray him just as he did with Pete when he was young….

      i love Beatles music, but i don’t like what they did with their good fellow

  3. Pete, your the Best ! All kidding aside, Most people would have jumped off a bridge if they were in your shoes at that time. You were probably the most unfortunate fellow every to endure such a tragic mis-giving. And you were able to endure and hold your head up high. Myself and most people of the world salute you for not going over the edge and doing something tragic to yourself.

    The world loves you Pete, because you are as much a part of the Beatles history as any of them. And I think more, because you were with them during the hard times. The Beatles would not be who they are if it were not for you and your contributions to their early beginings.

    I think Sir Paul and even Ringo should at least make a public statement about how sorry they feel for the way you were treated.

    They say “time heals all wounds”. I know it has with you, and I think it is time that it should with the other Fab 2 that are still alive. By golly, they owe you that.

    God bless you PETE, you will always be a BEATLE in my book. And the BEST one at that !!!!!

  4. Even though I am over 40 (and obviously know all about the Beatles) I only starting reading into the Pete Best sacking very recently.

    My view is they got rid of him AND his mother – on Youtube there is a TV interview with the pair of them c. 1964 and she was clearly a strong (possibly overbearing personality).

    As for Pete, on interviews he seems a level-headed guy. Although there are conflicting quotes from him on various websites about his sacking, for example;

    – In one quote he said Brian Epstein asked him as he came off stage to see him in his office the day after (to hear the news), and in another he says Brian telephoned him to come in.

    – Also Pete said as he was coming off stage the night before (the sacking) he asked John Lennon if he wanted a lift to their gig at Chester the next night (John refused nervously) – however from wiki’ing the list of Beatles gigs in ’62 there is not one listed for Chester that week.

    In any case Ringo fitted the bill perfectly for the next 8 years (his image in the cartoons is very much the Beatles) so the decision was probably the right one.

  5. Pete wouldn’t receive any money from the Star Club stuff because it’s Ringo playing. Recorded December ’62 I believe.

  6. Too bad to this daye he still does know wjy he was fired….bum deal..

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