The Beatles - early days at the Casbah Club

Been spending the last few weeks zipping through a few old books about The Beatles and their early days - "The Beatles: The True Beginnings" and Bob Spitz's "The Beatles - The Biography". More on the Spitz book later, as I'm still going through it (1000 pages plus!), but wanted to share a bit about the first one.



"The Beatles: The True Beginnings" is from the family Best, that is, ex-Beatles drummer Pete Best and his younger brother Roag Best (author) along with Pete and other brother Rory Best.

As one Amazon commentator writes, "...this book is truly an incredible document of the Beatles early years at the Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool." No hyperbole there.

It's a slice of pop history from the early days of Pete, Paul, John, Stuart and George and the 40-odd performances played at the tiny space, either as The QuarryMen or The Silver Beatles or whatever else the Beatles were calling themselves when a promoter's desire needed to be met. There are fond memories by the local kids (now pensioners, no doubt!) plus great memories of and from Pete's mom Mona Best, who started the Casbah Club from the basement of the Best family home.

The Casbah Club reopened a few years back as a Beatles tourist attraction in Liverpool, 50 years on from its humble beginnings. This book is your answer if you can't swing a trip to Liverpool these days.

Watch a cool video montage of early Beatles (w/Best) in Hamburg: