Formation

In March 1957, while attending Quarry Bank Grammar School in Liverpool, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen. Lennon and the Quarrymen met guitarist Paul McCartney at the Woolton Garden F?te held at St. Peter's Church on 6 July 1957 and added him to the group a few days later. On 6 February 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison was invited to watch the group (who played under a variety of names) at Wilson Hall, Garston, Liverpool. McCartney had become acquainted with Harrison on the morning school bus ride to the Liverpool Institute, as they both lived in Speke. At McCartney's insistence, Harrison joined the Quarrymen as lead guitarist after a rehearsal in March 1958, overcoming Lennon's initial reluctance because of Harrison's young age. Members continually joined and left the lineup during that period, and in January 1960 Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe joined on bass. Lennon and McCartney both played rhythm guitar and the group had a high turnover of drummers.



The Quarrymen went through a progression of names — Johnny and the Moondogs, Long John and the Beatles, the Silver Beetles (derived from Larry Parnes' suggestion of Long John and the Silver Beetles) — before settling on The Beatles in August 1960. There are many theories as to the origin of the name and its unusual spelling. It is usually credited to Lennon, who said that the name was a combination word-play on the insect beetles (as a reference to Buddy Holly's band, The Crickets) and the word beat. Cynthia Lennon suggests that Lennon came up with the name Beatles at a brainstorming session over a beer-soaked table in the Renshaw Hall bar. Lennon, who was well known for giving multiple versions of the same story, joked in a 1961 Mersey Beat magazine article that It came in a vision – a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, 'From this day on you are Beatles with an A'. During an interview in 2001, Paul McCartney took credit for the peculiar spelling of the name, saying that John had the idea of calling us the Beetles, I said, 'how about the Beatles; you know, like the beat of the drum?' At the time, everyone was stoned enough to find it hilarious. It's funny how history is made.



In May 1960, the Silver Beetles toured northeast Scotland as a back-up band with singer Johnny Gentle. They met Gentle an hour before their first gig, and McCartney referred to the tour as a great experience for the band. For the tour the often drummerless group secured the services of Tommy Moore, who was considerably older than the others. Moore left the band soon after the tour and went back to work in a bottling factory as a forklift truck driver. Norman Chapman was the band's next drummer, but was called up for National Service a few weeks later. His departure posed a serious problem as the group's unofficial manager, Allan Williams, had arranged for them to perform in clubs on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany.