Pete Best It’s a heartbreaking moment in the history of rock ’n’roll.
Pete Best played drums during the Beatles’ formative first two years, through the legendary Hamburg gigs, right up to their first recording session with producer George Martin, only to get sacked just before John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and their new drummer, Ringo Starr, rocketed to superstardom. In a 2001 interview, Best gamely fielded the question he’d contemplated for most of his life: What led to that fateful day when Beatles manager Brian Epstein fired him? “It came without any forewarning,” the drummer said. “I was called in on that particular day — I think it was August 15th or 16th of ’62 — totally unaware of what was going to happen. You know, we’d recorded. We were going to go back to put the finishing touches to ‘Love Me Do.’ We had the contract with EMI. Everything was lookin’ rosy, ’til 15 minutes with Brian Epstein, and Brian basically said, ‘Pete, you’re no longer in. The boys want you out, and Ringo’s in.’ “I suppose, puttin’ it in a cliché, it was like a bombshell. Or, as we say in Liverpool, ‘gob-smacked.’ Right? “And it did upset me, to be quite honest. And it did cause me a lot of heartache, a lot of financial embarrassment. Because very soon after that, as the world knows now, ‘Love Me Do’ went into the charts, and — pshffft! — the phenomenon was started. “But what you’ve got to do is knuckle down and turn ’round and say, ‘OK, life’s not over.’ You still believe in yourself. You still believe in your own abilities and your own talents. I joined another band. It was a case of trying to prove to people that the reason which they gave wasn’t the real reason. “But it became very, very evident that no matter how fast I chased ’em with a good band — right? — they were streets ahead of me,” Best added with a laugh. “I mean, they were moving so fast. It was like they were on a Japanese ‘bullet’ train, and I was on the No. 10 tram in Liverpool.” Four decades later came a gesture from the Beatles that went a long way toward mending their relationship with Best. The drummer was awarded royalties for older tracks he’d played on (including that first take of “Love Me Do”) on the Beatles’ “Anthology I” album of 1995. “It was something I’d never expected,” Best said of the royalty payments. “OK, who would expect something after 40 years? And of course, you’ve established your own lifestyle, you’ve achieved your own pinnacles, and you’re quite happy with what you’ve achieved in life and the way you’ve built your family up and the security you’ve got for them, and striving to keep yourself in that position where you can hold your head up high. “But, yes, it has basically set up a nice, secure base for my family for years to come.”
“LIfe’s not over,” said Pete Best, shown in 2001. Photo by Kathy Voglesong
