One of Dave Ravenscroft’s
great pix of the Quarrymen in Hamburg in June 2006.
The Quarrymen at the Liverpool Empire:
Aug 2006
As part of Beatle Week in Aug 2006 the Quarrymen were invited by Cavern City Tours to perform at the Liverpool Empire on a show which also featured Tony Sheridan and Donovan. Radio Merseyside’s inimitable Billy Butler introduced the Quarrymen who had appeared on his radio programme that morning. The last time the group appeared at the Empire was in 1957 on a Carroll Levis Discovery Show - they weren’t discovered! To gales of laughter Billy announced that the Quarrymen were “back after 49 years by popular demand!
American Beatle fan and music journalist Timothy Tilghman of Rockontour.net reviewed the Quarrymen’s performance:
The Quarrymen reunited together on stage at the Liverpool Empire Theatre on Saturday, August 26, 2006; 49 years after the group originally performed as participants in a talent search contest with the late John Lennon as their lead singer. The graying lads delivered an entertaining show for the assembled Beatles fans in the audience.
The Quarrymen line-up now features Len Garry on acoustic guitar and lead vocals, Colin Hanton on drums, John Duff Lowe on keyboards, guest musician Frank Cairns handles the bass position for the band, and Rod Davis on acoustic guitar and harmony vocals. Pete Shotton has retired, and Eric Griffiths passed away on January 29, 2005.
Both drummer Colin Hanton and keyboardist John Duff Lowe appear on the original 1958 Quarrymen recording of the McCartney-Harrison composition, "In Spite Of All The Danger", issued on the first Beatles Anthology album in 1995. What an undeniable treat it was for his fans when Paul McCartney dusted off this historic song as a solo performance on tour dates in 2004 and 2005.
Performing an abbreviated set at the Empire Theatre in celebration of Beatles Week, The Quarrymen ran through several numbers of the day when they were teenagers back in the 1950's. Now almost five decades later, these gents have reunited, offering a glimpse into the embryonic vehicle that launched the musical career of the late John Lennon.
Garry is the principal lead vocalist, and the group began the evening with "Mean Woman Blues". Dual acoustic guitars and the sparse arrangement brought the sound of the ancient skiffle craze alive again on stage. Garry is a natural singer with strong projection.
Davis took his turn at the microphone with "Rock Island Line", the song identified with Lonnie Donegan who was responsible for igniting the skiffle craze that inspired a teen-aged John Lennon to pick up the guitar. Garry provided harmony after the spoken intro with Lowe taking up the washboard for added effect.
Garry commented about the early Quarrymen rehearsals before singing the Presley tune, "That's All Right, Mama", with an authentic `50's feel. A keyboard solo from Lowe lifted the melody, before Garry reprised the final verse. Hanton spoke about how he came to join The Quarrymen and the scarcity of Liverpool bands having an actual drummer in the group.
Lowe remarked about attending the Liverpool ceremony to place a commemorative plaque at the location of the Phillips Sound Recording Service where the first recordings by Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison with Hanton and Lowe were engineered by Percy F. Phillips in 1958. Lowe later rediscovered the shellac disc in 1981, ensuring its eventual commercial release in 1995.
Truly the musical highlight of their Liverpool reunion, a new arrangement introduced "In Spite Of All The Danger". After Lowe's keyboard solo, Garry's confident vocals transformed the moment into a memorable performance. The crowd cheered in approval on this wholly original Quarrymen composition.
The Quarrymen were encouraged to perform one encore for the enthusiastic audience. The final number, "Twenty Flight Rock", was the song that cemented the relationship between Lennon and McCartney. Garry and Davis harmonized together, underscored by a subtle keyboard solo. The gents took a much deserved bow together to a standing ovation.
The Quarrymen have recorded and released two studio albums to their credit: John Lennon's Original Quarrymen Get Back Together from 1997, and Songs We Remember from 2004. Talk about a blast from the past, these albums project a homespun musicianship with a Liverpool twist. John Lennon would surely have enjoyed hearing these recordings.
Our thanks to Timothy for permission to reproduce this review.
Sun 4th June 2006 - Hamburg
Hamburg City Museum presented a major exhibition “The Hamburg Sound” from 2 June until November 2006. No prizes for guessing the subject matter! To kick it all off they held a “Beatles, Beat and Grosse Freiheit Festival” over the weekend of 3/4/5 June in the Museum which is conveniently a few steps away from the Reeperbahn and the Heiligengeistenfeld where Astrid Kirchherr took those famous Beatle photos. Amongst the many guests were Astrid herself, Klaus Voorman, Cynthia Lennon, Mark Lewisohn, Ian Edwards of the Zodiacs, King Size Taylor and the Dominoes and loads of others. The Quarrymen made their first ever appearance in Hamburg - (whatever happened to those Beatles guys????) at the Festival on the afternoon of Sunday 4 June. Len, Colin, John and Rod were really looking forward to their visit to Hamburg after all these years, and especially to a plateful of traditional Hamburg “labskaus” - the forerunner of the famous Liverpool “Lobscouse”.
Sat 3 June 2006 Glauchau, Germany
The Quarrymen appeared at the Beatlesfestival in Glauchau, Saxony, in Germany (just south of Leipzig) as part of the town’s Summer of Culture. Glauchau is home to Edmund Thielow’s famous “Beat Archiv” museum and Edmund himself was
one of the organisers of the event. The Quarrymen took part in a chat and autograph session in the afternoon, followed by a concert in the evening in the courtyard of the Castle.
Picture shows Len, Colin and John outside the “Beat Archiv” with organisers Edmund Thielow (white T shirt) and his wife Christina (left) and Gunter Queck and his wife Undine (front right).
- Click here for more photos of Glauchau
- Click here to visit the Beat Archiv website
Quarrymen play at London launch of
Hunter Davies’ autobiography
After a lifetime of writing about other people, Beatle Biographer Hunter Davies eventually put himself under the microscope and produced his autobiography entitled “The Beatles, Football and me”, Beatle fans reading this may not be aware that the ruling passion of Hunter’s life (apart from his wife Margaret) is football - he collaborated on both Gazza’s and Wayne Rooney’s biogs.The book was launched on Monday 16 October at the celebrated Groucho Club in Soho, the watering hole of the British media. To entertain his guests Hunter asked the Quarrymen to make an appearance, which they did in the shape of Colin Hanton, John Duff Lowe and Rod Davis.
In the absence of Len Garry due to work commitments their set contained more skiffle than usual. This however seemed to go down well with the audience of journalists, many of whom seemed to know all the words. Guardian diarist Simon Hoggart mentioned his visit to the launch in his column on Sat 21 October, commenting about the Quarrymen that “... very good they were too. In my view you can’t hear Freight Train too often.” (See link below for full article).
By way of a movie premiere Hunter showed his guests a Super-8 movie he had taken himself in 1968 he in Portugal when Paul, Linda and her daughter turned up on his doorstep and stayed for a holiday, bringing with them the first pressing of the White Album. This was an exceptional treat for the Beatle fans in the audience and held an especial poignancy bearing in mind Paul’s current troubles. As the party broke up, Hunter announced his intention to write an article about the Quarrymen for “The Oldie Magazine” - it seems that the Quarrymen have at last found their true niche.
“The Beatles, Football and me” by Hunter Davies, is published by Headline and costs £18.99. It’s a very enjoyable read, providing an entertaining insight into Hunter’s fascinating career.
Quarrymen at the Hard Rock Café - London
After their gig at the Groucho the Quarrymen sped across central London to Piccadilly, where the Charity ABC - Action for Brazilian Children was a holding a charity evening featuring the music of Os Britos, a group of musicians from Brazil’s two top bands - George Israel from Kid Abelha, Rodrigo S
anto and Guto Goffi from Barao Vermelho plus Nani Dias who decided to get together to help the charity by making a tour of London, Liverpool and Dublin in the company of a huge crowd of enthusiastic fans, the entire shenaigans being filmed for Brazilian TV.
Despite being old enough to be the grandfathers of most of the members of the audience the Quarrymen received a terrific reception when they climbed on stage and performed a 30 minute set. Later they joined Os Britos for a couple of really wild rock numbers with a crazy lead guitar player and an even crazier sax player. We can’t wait to see the videotapes!
Quarrymen at SemanaBeatles
(Beatles Week) in Valencia, Spain
The Quarrymen topped the bill at the Semana Beatles (Beatles Week) - Spain’s biggest and best Beatle Convention which wase held from Monday 27 Nov until Sun 3 Dec in the Centro Cultural - Tivoli in Burjassot in Valencia - their first ever appearance in Spain!
Other groups featured during the week long event included The Prellies, Escarabajos SL, The Liverpool Band, Los Goggles, The Flaming Pie Band, Ya para Junio, Los Beaters, Revival and last but not least Gary Quinn. Masterminding the whole proceedings was Carlos Chardí, who appeared with the Quarrymen as guest bass player.
Sponsors of the Convention included EMI MUSIC Spain, Höfner Guitars, Hoteles Trapemar and Al’s Music Factory.
In Valencia with his family for the Convention was the author of the Beatles Story in Comic Strip himself, Juan Carlos Mazas de Lizana Botella, for whom Rod Davis does the translation for the English version. If you’ve never seen the Comic,you’re missing a real treat!
The Quarrymen are
“Open for Engagements............”
The Quarrymen are planning an action packed 2007 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of
“The day John met Paul”
If you would like to book the Quarrymen,
- CLICK HERE to send us an email.......
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John Lennon’s
Original Quarrymen