The Beatles History: Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall. And Manchester

 The entire year of 1959 was a period of intense concerts, honing one's vocal skills and playing all kinds of instruments - not only guitars. It was a period of another coming together of the three Friends, as well as a blossoming romance between John and Cyn. This is a period of great friendship between Paul and John. Paul, also without his beloved mother, understands John like no one else, tries to tame his older friend's rebellious and hooligan nature at that time and direct his interest only towards music. Gentle, calm and quiet Cynthia tries to replace her boyfriend's friend, lover and, in a sense, mother. John's relationship with Mimi, the strict aunt with whom he lives, is far from ideal, but it cannot be said that John grows up in a home without love. She has a particularly good relationship with her Uncle George, Mimi's husband. August 29, 1959 - The Casbah Club was run by Mona Best, mother of their future drummer, Pete. Mona tried to make the club a more elite place in Liverpool, only members of the Club and, of course, friends of her sons, Pete and the younger Rory, were allowed to enter it. The Quarrymen (the spelling of the band's name was changed) performed in Casbach with the lineup of John, Paul, George and Ken Brown. At that time, The Les Stewart Quartet was performing at the club, with Harrison still unsure of his place alongside Lennon and McCartney, hence the idea of playing with the competition. But it was George who suggested to the club's owner, Mona Best, that The Quarrymen should perform instead of The Les Stewart Quartet, which had problems with assembling the entire lineup. It resulted from an internal quarrel in the band (guitarist Ken Brown eventually started helping Mona decorate the club). 300 membership cards were purchased and the performance at the club had to take place. Even Cynthia Powell got involved in helping decorate the club and painted a silhouette of John, her future husband, on the wall of the club. Mona Best committed a fee of 15 shillings per head and a concert was held at the club and the club itself began to gain more and more fame in Liverpool ( it can still be visited in Liverpool today with its original decorations from 1959 preserved). Earlier, as a result of (alcohol-related) quarrels at the very beginning of the year, Colin Hanton left the band, unfortunately with his drums. So at the Casbah concert, the band performed without drums, with Ken Brown on guitar. But there was a very significant event that evening. At the concert (a very successful one, lasting several hours), the boys met their future closest collaborators in The Beatles: "roadie's" Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall. Mal and Neil were friends of Pete Best and Neil was also Mona Best's close partner and in the future (1962) the father of Pete Roag's next brother. September - October - next concerts of The Quarrymen at Casbah Coffee Club, still without drums, four guitars, apart from future Beatles Ken Brown. One evening (October 10), Mona sent Ken off stage as he looked like he had a fever. At that time, boys still earned 15 shillings a night. So that evening they played without the sick Ken, the three of them, and they wanted the full fare for four - Mona Best recalls this event in "Shout" by Peter Norman. Mona had paid Ken his fee in advance, even though he wasn't on stage that night, she thought it was fair to the boy. However, three of his colleagues wanted his salary for the "work done by the three of us". Not very elegantly, but such situations were supposed to happen to our heroes. As a result of this incident, Ken left the band in anger. Apparently he then told Pete that he should take his place in the band because he was done with them. October 18 - the boys take part in the "Star Search" competition - searching for new talents at Liverpool's Empire Theater, renamed for that evening to Johnny And The Moondogs (following the then fashionable names such as Cliff Richard And The Shadows, Cass And The Casanovas, etc.). "Star Search" is a very popular television program by Carroll Lewis. Still without drums, the group successfully passes - although they do not win - the preliminary qualifying rounds (this and the next one on October 26-31) for the final competition. November 15 - final at the Hippodrome Theater in Manchester. Completing two stages of the popular competition was already quite an event. The prospect of performing in a concert broadcast throughout the country kept them awake at night and the boys went to Manchester proud, satisfied, but also full of fears and ... with empty pockets. The evening ended unluckily. Unable to wait for their performance and watching the event drag on, aware of the fact that they have no money for a hotel, they give up and take the last train back to their hometown of Liverpool.