PETE BEST COMBO CD 1965

tomrat · Post by **tomrat** » Mon Feb 05, 2001 12:34 pm

PART 1...
I thought some of you might want to check this cd out I got a while back. It's called Pete Best Combo BEST spine # 50069....UPC # 6 14475 00692 6 The recordings are mid-60s.
It gives you a pretty good idea of Pete's drum style and possibly why the Beatles went with Ringo. His drum style is pretty primitive. He tends to hang onto the hi-hat and snare drum and mounted tambourine on some songs. No tom- tom rolls. He does a few very good snare rolls. Its kinda primitive caveman style drumming. The timing is off here and there also. I dont hear any bass drum. I dont know if it's just the recording or if Pete has a light touch or what. Just reporting here and I'm not putting him down.

tomrat · Post by **tomrat** » Mon Feb 05, 2001 12:36 pm

PART 2...
I dont think he could have been the Beatles 1965-70 drummer, they might have gotten away with it on stage up till 1964, but they would have had to use a studio drummer.
Pete would have improved maybe but these recordings pretty much tell you where he was in 1965-66.

M.Light · Post by **M.Light** » Tue Feb 06, 2001 11:16 pm

Tomrat-dittos. We had a great posting on that same subject below, last update about 1/13. A lot of great ideas from Peter M. and others. The thread took a few unusual turns with some stuff I'd never heard before(re why they fired Pete,etc). I do believe that when you listen to the recordings with Pete and compare it to even early Ringo, there's no contest. And I don't think production is the difference. Pete may've been good, but Ringo had/has a great feel and confidence, musically. He knew he was good(of course in general The Beatles knew they were good, that's one of the reasons they were!) I know who I would've chosen.......

tom · Post by **tom** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 12:51 am

Pete Best was more of a garage type drummer, put simply. I wonder what he was like on that recent tour? I think it was unfortunate that the Beatles didnt get Ringo in sooner, before they were signed. That would have saved hurting Pete as bad. Tom.

DGP · Post by **DGP** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 8:30 pm

I saw Pete perform live in Argentina in 1998, I met him and shook his hand. I can't really tell whether he was good or not, there were two drummers, the other one was his brother. All the members of the band were from Liverpool, and played mainly beatles songs (what else?), but not only stuff like "please please me", they even played "get back" and "hey jude". The thing is that Pete was sort of hidden on the stage, you couldn't actually see him too well. I didn't hear him play bad, but he didn't impress me at all...

tom · Post by **tom** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 11:57 pm

It's too bad he didn't just play the old songs from the cavern days. What's up with playing Hey Jude? I could see him doing old Chuck Berry, Boys, Twist and Shout, that sort of thing. Or why not the songs on this old cd?

DGP · Post by **DGP** » Fri Feb 09, 2001 9:35 pm

Yeah, the band was mainly a beatle cover band, they played songs from every beatle period, one (or two, not more) original, and some other covers

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Feb 09, 2001 9:46 pm

Pete Bests 2000 Tour was nothing like that at all. They group played those songs that The Beatles would have played, for the most part, in the early days. An excellent show with great narration by the frontman Kevin MacMichael of Cutting Crew.

tom · Post by **tom** » Sat Feb 10, 2001 12:34 am

That's good to know. How was his drumming on the tour?

admin · Post by **admin** » Sat Feb 10, 2001 6:39 am

My take on the Pete Best Tour is posted on No Reply.

tom · Post by **tom** » Sat Feb 10, 2001 12:49 pm

I have seen a few short interviews and the guy seems real cool.

DGP · Post by **DGP** » Sun Feb 11, 2001 10:12 pm

Well, in the show I saw, he almost wasn't there, and played not only hamburg days songs, but any beatle song, like "ticket to ride", "a hard day's night", "hey jude", "get back", "help!", "You Can't Do That", "Back In The USSR", etc.

tom · Post by **tom** » Sun Feb 11, 2001 11:19 pm

I only have one question...WHY!
tom

scouser · Post by **scouser** » Thu Mar 15, 2001 2:59 pm

After reading through the postings on this thread and seeing how it's wandered off course, I thought that I'd throw a spanner in the works...

Both the Pete Best Combo and The Undertakers recorded albums concurrently at Talentmasters Recording Studios, in New York City, during August/September 1965. In fact, Pete and his combo played on a couple of our songs and we played on a couple of theirs. This before both groups were shipped up to Canada to do some concerts (which didn't materialize. But that's another story) while our work permits were being worked on. Both these albums were of material that comprised of our Liverpool stage shows. In the Undertakers case, we had a couple of original tracks that we recorded, including the Black Watch release "I Fell In Love (For The Very First Time)". Our recordings came out finally, in 1995, on Big Records in a CD that was appropriately named, "Unearthed".