John Lennon's Original Quarrymen

John Lennon’s Original Quarrymen - the band who were on stage with John Lennon on Saturday July 6th, 1957 - the day John met Paul McCartney - got back together in 1997 to celebrate the most momentous meeting in pop music history. They enjoyed themselves so much at that reunion and interest from fans was so great that they decided to re-form the group forty years on!

The current Quarrymen lineup includes the last two of those five original musicians still active - Rod Davis, a schoolmate of John Lennon from Quarry Bank School, at first the banjo player but now on guitar and vocals – Rod drifted out of the group in summer 1957 and was replaced by Paul McCartney; and Colin Hanton on drums, who played with John from 1956 to 1959, and of course with Paul and George after they joined. Colin played drums on the famous Percy Phillips recording session which produced "In Spite of All the Danger" and "That'll Be the Day" which was featured on the Beatles’ "Anthology, Volume 1" CD set.

In 2005 John Duff Lowe joined the Quarrymen lineup, adding his authentic piano sound for which his friend Paul McCartney invited him to take part in that 1958 recording, but Duff retired due to ill health in 2018 and passed away in 2024. In 2016 Chas Newby, who played bass for the Beatles in 1960, joined the Quarrymen on bass, but sadly died in 2023 after a short illness. Len Garry, who was the tea-chest bass player from 1956 to 1957, played guitar and sang lead with the Quarrymen from 1997 onwards, but nowadays he is rarely able to play with the Quarrymen because of infirmity.

The two original members, Colin Hanton and Rod Davis, are now joined by bass player David Bedford. David, who lives in Penny Lane and is a prolific Beatles author who is very well respected for his meticulous research. David has been playing guitar and bass for many years. Henry, a brilliant piano player and son of John Duff Lowe, joined the group in 2023, taking his father’s place.

Anyone knowing their Beatles’ history is aware that The Quarrymen eventually evolved into the Beatles. It is precisely their stories of the group’s origins and of course the Skiffle and early Rock music that the Quarrymen perform, that draw to their shows not only Beatles’ fans, but all those who enjoy the history of the music and of the fifties.

The other members of the original group were John's lifelong friend, washboard player Pete Shotton, who retired in Dec 2000 and died in 2017, and guitarist Eric Griffiths who sadly died in January 2005, but not before thoroughly enjoying several tours with the newly reborn “Pre-Fab Five” - as the New York Post referred to them in 1998 after their gig at the legendary “Bottom Line” in Greenwich Village.

The Quarrymen play the music which influenced the birth of the Beatles, the Skiffle and Rock ‘n’ Roll of the mid fifties – “Rock Island Line”, “Mean Woman Blues”, “Midnight Special”, “Twenty Flight Rock”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, and many more, played in the style of the hundreds of similar groups who were laying the foundations of British Rock Music. Of course - the difference with the Quarrymen was that it was fronted by one very special man, John Lennon, who gathered together his best mates way back then to embark on the most famous journey in music history.
As well as their music, the Quarrymen share their Liverpool sense of humour in the stories and anecdotes with which they pepper their performance, giving Beatles fans a unique insight into the origins of their favourite group and the city in which they grew up.

Since 1997 the Quarrymen have played all over Europe, in Canada, Japan, Cuba, Mexico and Russia, and have visited the USA many times, performing in New York, Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas and across the country. They have appeared on stage with Pete Seeger, Pete Best, Tony Sheridan and Laurence Juber and have made countless TV and radio appearances. In 2007 they were featured on the BBC TV’s hour-long documentary “It was 50 years ago today” which dealt with the “Day John Met Paul” in Liverpool. In 2010 the Quarrymen undertook a 21 day tour of the US in conjunction with the Lennon biopic “Nowhere Boy” during which they played 17 gigs from coast to coast, culminating in a mammoth concert in New York on what would have been John’s 70th birthday, where guests included Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton and Neil Innes. In 2013 they were featured in the Channel 4 documentary “Rock ‘n’ Roll Britannia”. The only authorised Beatle biographer, Hunter Davies, also wrote the story of the Quarrymen which was published in 2002.

The Quarrymen have released three cds, "Get Back Together" in 1997, "Songs We Remember" in 2004 and “Live in Penny Lane” in 2020, and in 2009 Horst Fascher’s Star Club-tv released a 60 minute dvd of a Quarrymen performance in Germany. Drummer Colin Hanton’s autobiography, “Pre-Fab” has been made into a documentary which is due to be released shortly.