‘We were just a bunch of lads having fun then’
The Quarrymen gave birth to The Beatles, or so they say. Last July the band were in Bristol to play a gig. JEFFREY DAVIES spoke to drummer Colin Hanton about what it was like to have been there right at the beginning ...
THE Quarrymen, a British skiffle/rock and roll group, have an extraordinary and unparalleled legacy in the history of popular music. Formed by John Lennon and childhood friend Pete Shotton in 1956, the band and its various line-ups, including Paul Mccartney and George Harrison, contributed to the music legacy that led to the formation of “the Fab Four” – The Beatles. The original Quarrymen, or Quarry Men as they are sometimes billed, reunited again in 1997 to celebrate the anniversary of when Paul Mccartney first met John Lennon. They loved the experience so much – and the fans demanded more and more shows – that for the past 25 years, “occasionally” other members have come together to perform live music again. Active from 1956 to 1960 and then from 1994 to the present day, the band’s original members were Colin Hanton [drums], Eric Griffiths [guitar], John Lennon [guitar], Pete Shotton [washboard], Bill Smith [tea-chest bass] and Rod Davis [banjo, guitar and vocals]. Paul Mccartney joined in 1957 and George Harrison in early 1958. Last July The Quarrymen were in Bristol at Clifton’s intimate Redgrave Theatre to play a gig and to meet the audience “In Conversation”. “Yes, that’s brilliant Jeffrey,” Colin Hanton replied to my request for an interview after the double-bill show. The Quarrymen formed in Liverpool in 1956. Would it be fair to say the band was formed by John Lennon alone or were there other musicians involved in its creation? “Well, it was John’s initial idea yes, but he also had some of his schoolfriends who joined in with him. John started to learn to play the guitar, Pete Shotton had a washboard, Eric Griffiths was on guitar and we also had a tea-chest bass. Rod Davis had a banjo and I was on the drums. So the initial group of The Quarrymen were John Lennon, Eric Griffiths, Rod Davis, Pete Shotton, Bill Smith and me – Colin.” How did the lads meet up? “They were all in the same year in the same school; Quarrybank School. They were about 14 or 15.” Was music in their family DNA or did they just happen to share a collective love of music and performing? “This was not long after the war and music on the radio was fairly boring. Then Lonnie Donegan came along with Rock Island Line. He said you don’t have to go to school to learn to play anything. Anything that makes a noise like a tea-chest bass or a washboard will do so just get up and do it! And hundreds of kids did! “We all formed skiffle groups and we were all having fun, basically. I knew Eric Griffiths and once he heard I’d bought a small drum kit and that I was interested in jazz he came up to my house to see them. He then invited me to join The Quarrymen because I was the only guy he knew in the whole world who had a drum kit!” Colin said. “We did concerts in Quarrybank [High] School but mainly in St Peter’s Church Hall in the youth club. Then they just started to spread out and did talent contests pretty much all around Merseyside. All the big dance halls had skiffle contests and it was some kind of entertainment while the main band went off for a drink.” Who were the band’s musical influences in the early days? “Lonnie Donegan very much started it all but Elvis and Carl Perkins came along fairly soon after that. We slowly moved from Lonnie Donegan’s skiffle to Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley’s Blue Suede Shoes and Twenty Flight Rock and stuff like that.” Colin said he was “just about there” at the beginning. It must have been a very exciting time to be pioneers in music back then? “We didn’t think of ourselves as pioneers, Jeffrey. We were just a bunch of lads having fun because now we were performing on the stage at St Peter’s Church Hall and youth club and all our friends were in the audience. We didn’t know anything really about what was going to happen,” Colin said. Did The Quarrymen generate a lot of interest in the youths of the time? “Yes, we had a good deal of followers. The hall would be full because they knew The Quarrymen were on.” Centre stage in a band in that most iconic era must have been a dream come true for Colin and his bandmates. “It was just a lot of fun. We were just young men thoroughly enjoying ourselves basically, and making music the best we could. That’s the truth.” Paul Mccartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe were also members of The Quarrymen. How soon did they become part of the group? “It was the summer of 1957 when we were playing on an outdoor stage at St Peter’s Garden Fete that Paul turned up to watch us. In the evening he went over to the hall where the Grand Dance was and he was introduced to John [Lennon]. Two weeks later he was invited to join The Quarrymen because he could play Twenty Five Rock. He knew all the words.” Were the songs the band sang then self-penned numbers? “No, no, no. They were all covers of the old American ones like Rock Island Line and Mean Woman Blues because
the band weren’t writing at the time. However by the time we met Paul [Mccartney] in 1957 – after Pete [Shotton] who played the washboard and Rod [Davis] who played banjo left – there was John [Lennon], Paul [Mccartney] and Eric [Griffiths] on guitars and myself on drums. Then Eric left and George Harrison, who was very young and very good on the guitar, joined us. So at the end of 1957 there was John, Paul, George and me,” Colin recalled. The Quarrymen gave birth to The Beatles. Is that fair to say? “Well, yes, everybody says that, so I suppose it is,” Colin replied. Was there any indication at that time that the band, which had a strong local Liverpool fanbase, was on its way to becoming a global sensation? “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think anybody realised at that time how good things were going to turn out. We were doing local gigs, as I said, with four or five other bands. Anyway, Paul said to John we’ve got to start writing our own stuff because the other groups won’t know what we’re doing. We can make a difference. So they put their heads together to start writing and their first one was, I think, Paul’s In Spite of All the Danger.” What were Colin’s first impressions and memories of John, Paul and George? “I got on well with John but he could be funny with some people. Paul was always a diplomat and very nice. And George was very young, about 14, and very quiet and just played the guitar when he was asked,” Colin remembered. Did it come as a shock when John, Paul and George went on to be as big as they did? “I don’t say shock but I was quite surprised. I came home from work on Friday night and Granada TV news was on and towards the end of it they said we have a band here from Liverpool called The Beatles. Then suddenly I saw John, Paul and George on the television and I thought, ‘What the heck are they doing on the telly!’” he said with a laugh. So would Colin say the music changed a lot from the moment the lads became The Beatles? “Oh yes. I mean once they started writing all their own songs the music became completely different. They didn’t do covers or Rock Island Line anymore. Generally they were writing their own stuff from then on. They just took off.” So what was it about The Beatles that made them take the world by storm? “Well, really if we knew the answer to that Jeffrey we’d all be doing it again, wouldn’t we?” Colin answered with a laugh. “The Beach Boys were good but their music is pretty much the same every time. The Beatles on the other hand had hit records but they changed the style. Take She Loves You and their LP Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for example, which are completely different. They had a massive talent for writing songs and for performing.” Was John and Paul’s talent for songwriting evident when they were with The Quarrymen? “Well, yes, but we didn’t realise the extent of it at the time. Then Paul wrote In Spite of All the Danger, which we recorded at the Percy Phillips Studio. It was our very first record ever and is now probably the most valuable record in the world. In Spite of All the Danger was on one side and That’ll Be The Day on the other,” Colin said. Did The Quarrymen and The Beatles ever perform on stage together in Liverpool’s iconic venue The Cavern? “The Quarrymen played The Cavern often but not under the name of The Beatles. They didn’t become The Beatles until I left. They drifted around for a while without a drummer. Then when they were invited to go to Hamburg people said you’d better have a drummer so they had Pete Best.” Now 84, does Colin feel lucky to have enjoyed so many years of performing? “Well, yeah, I do in a way. From 1997 all those original lads have gone back together to form the original Quarrymen and since then we’ve really not stopped playing. We’ve been all around the world.” Colin went on: “In 1997 I was in Paris after being enticed out of retirement for a one-off charity concert to raise money to repair the roof of St Peter’s Church Hall. First of all I said no because I hadn’t played the drums for 40 years. But I was persuaded to do it! Then before we knew it we had a phone call asking us if we’d like to come to Cuba. And we were off.” Both John Lennon and George Harrison have passed away. But does Colin ever see Paul now? “Yeah, I do. I last spoke to him on December 12 in 2018 actually, which happened to be my 80th birthday. My wife and I got VIP tickets to go and see his concert. I went backstage beforehand and Paul and I had a chat about In Spite of All the Danger. Paul then went off to do the concert and he did a little Quarrymen set which was really nice,” he smiled, going on to explain why he left Quarrymen. “I was an apprentice upholsterer at the time which was a good job to have. My dad always said I must have an apprenticeship, that I must have a trade. I also got a bit fed up carrying my drums on the bus so in early 1959 I thought I’ve had enough of this and decided to concentrate on my trade.” Had he remained with The Quarrymen for just another year does Colin ever feel he might have become a Beatle himself? “No. I think they would have got to a point where they would have said we need the best drummer we can get,” the musician answered modestly.