Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

In the early days, the Beatles were unfortunate in their choice of drummers! Their appears to be some mitigating circumstances for Tommy Moore's embarrassing non appearances, he joined the group in early May 1960, he lived with his then girl friend in a area of Liverpool known as the Dingle, she loathed him being connected to the Beatles, he started a new job close to his family home in Garston working night shifts as a fork-lift truck operator, the unsociable hours were not conducive to being a integral part of a Rock'n'Roll group,; I had a conversation one lunchtime at the Iron Door 1961 with John Lennon, the group were desperately embarrassed, they all went to Tommy's girl friend’s house, after getting no reply from knocking on the door they tapped on the windows, immediately a window upstairs opened Tommy's girl friend popped her head out of the window and invited the group to F---off Tommy was sleeping having worked all night, she did not want him associated with a gang of dropouts. Tommy managed to get time of work to join the Silver Beetles on the mini tour of Scotland, this proved to be a unhappy time for him, during the journey to the next gig all the group and equipment were stuffed in the hired van, space was at a premium Tommy elected to sit in the middle of the front seat between the driver and passenger seat, the driver on this occasion was Johnny Gentle he shunted into a elderly couples car, resulting in an emergency slamming on the brakes, poor Tommy shot out of his seat and landed with his face smashed into the windscreen, resulting in the damage to his front teeth, after treatment at the hospital they advised him to stay overnight, this caused a major problem for the group, they could not replace him and they were due on stage of the next booked venue, the reaction of the local promoter to the groups quandary he insisted the group on stage with the named drummer. John Lennon and the promoter persuaded Tommy to sign himself out of the hospital and appear on stage with the group for the evening performance. Incidentally, one of the promoters owned the van that was involved in the collision.
Back in Liverpool, Tommy decided to leave the group. Performing his last gig in June 1961, Tommy died of a Brain Hemorrhage in September 1981.
Alan Williams, the owner of the Jacaranda in Slater Street, Liverpool, appointed himself the Silver Beetles manager and organized a booking at a famous club in Hamburg, Germany. The Silver Beetles departed in August 1960 with their new drummer, Pete Best. And we all know how that ended