We all know about The Beatles and have loved their music that changed the way a whole generation thought, talked and walked.
We would like to think we know all there is to know about the Beatles but recently new information has come to light concerning the true story of how the Beatles got their name and became a band as told by the cousin of a friend who new the middle sister of the guitarist whose band inspired and showed the four mop tops the road to musical freedom.
As England emerged from the shadow of World war 2, a sense of prosperity and freedom permeated the nation and provided teenagers with a passion for all things American especially American music which hit the shores of England and made all else seemed rather dull.
While most kids jiggled to rock’a’billy or started to play a do it yourself style of music called Skiffle which was based on American folk music from the twenties and thirties, one group called The Dung Beatles began playing a form of music called Skunk music that was probably the forerunner to what we now know as punk music.
The Dung Beatles were so unappealing and sounded so awful that no one came to see them play except for four young Liverpool lads called John, Paul, George and Pete.
For some reason skunk music held a fascination for them, especially John but after a short blazing career to nowhere the Dung Beatles cracked and broke up.
Jimmy Spitz the drummer left to join a traveling circus, Marty Killem the bass player forgot his name and settled down to be a butcher, the singer Andy Monk became a monk and their guitarist Syren Turner hopped on a passing ship bound for the world and was never heard from again but not before he gave John, Paul, George and Pete all the musical gear and his blessing for them to be the new Dung Beatles as a way of saying thanks for being their only fans.
John, Paul, George and Pete took to the whole musical thing like ducks to water and tried playing the instruments they had inherited.
They thrashed, bashed and smashed but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t sound anywhere near as bad as the original Dung Beatles had.
After a time, the novelty wore off and they had to admit they were on a road to nowhere and would never be as good as the original Dung Beatles.
As the cold truth of reality set in, they decided they might as well to learn to play the instruments properly.
After much practice they began to notice that people liked the way they played, especially when they weren’t trying to imitate their musical heroes the original Dung Beatles.
They began playing in places around Liverpool most notably at a club called “The Cavern” where girls began screaming and throwing their telephone numbers at them and boys stared at them with undisguised envy and jealousy as the band wiggled, jiggled and crooned away on stage.
They became more and more popular, eventually coming to the notice of a record shop owner called Brian Epstein who wisely persuaded the lads to drop the dung and just call themselves “The Beatles” and as we know, the rest is history.