Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 12:39 pm
Great photos, Kent. Couldn't help but notice one of the knobs is already missing on Lennon's guitar.
From what survives of Beatle recordings with Pete Best, I never thought he was all that bad a drummer. I know that George Martin didn't want to use him for studio recordings, but from everything I've read that was just the last straw that triggered a move they would have probably made anyways. (for those who haven't, you should read Pete's book BEATLE!... very interesting)
A rock'n'roll group is a weird thing. Pete was a decent enough drummer (and perhaps the most popular among the girls which was likely a factor), but what really did him in was simply that he never broke into the tight circle that was John Paul and George. He just was never "one of the boys" and would constantly tweek them by staking out his independant terratory.... his refusal to comb his hair forward an example of that.
This subject is on my mind because my little band is in a similar situation. There are the 3 of us who are pretty tight and we call this group within a group the "Usual Suspects". And then there is the drummer who joined at a later date after our two previous drummer left for one reason or another and who's drumming is adequate but not all that great. But in addition he just doesn't seem to fit in and always seems to intentionally remind us of that. For instance, for casual gigs we all wear black t-shirts or one form or another as a general band rule. However he always seems to insist on showing up with some other colored shirt...... no big deal I know, but every time he does something like that I cant help but think of Pete Best.
Anyways, we joke about some day finding our "Ringo" and actually have a stealth effort going on to do just that. Time will tell. By the way, if you've read this far, thanks.
Here's a more general topic of discussion:
WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO KICK SOMEONE OUT OF A BAND???
I'm sure there are people on this site who have been involved in that process. I have once before (a different band long ago in a galaxy far far away) and we did it in a very straight-up manner (just told him face-to-face). However it sucked bigtime and I dont look forward to going through that again. Still, if our Ringo did come along, we just HAVE to go for it. Unfortunately for us we dont have a Brian Epstein to do our dirty work for us.