Part 3: Lewisohn's Moondogs Chronology

The Events From Lewisohn's Research

In his excellent "Complete Beatles Chronicle" Mark Lewisohn gives the following account of their attempts at the Carroll Levis talent competition.

Sunday 9 June 1957
The Quarry Men (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and presumably John Lowe and Colin Hanton) entered the auditions for "Mr Star Maker" Carroll Levis's "TV Star Search" show at the Liverpool Empire Theatre, 3.00pm. This audition would have been held in private, attended only by the hopeful performers and officials of the show who had the task of selecting those thought talented enough to be inflicted onto a real audience. The Quarry Men were judged lacking ! Hence they did not appear on the show itself, which had two nightly showings from Monday 17 to Saturday 23 June 1957.

Sunday 11, 18 or 25 October 1959
Johnny and The Moondogs (John, Paul and George) attended the private audition for the talent show at the Liverpool Empire. Presumably the theatre was used for private auditions for several Sundays (when it was closed to the public) running up to the show itself, and it is not known which Sunday they were scheduled. But they passed !

Monday 26 - Saturday 31 October 1959
The Carroll Levis "TV Star Search" show was held twice nightly at the Liverpool Empire. Johnny and The Moondogs would have appeared at least once, maybe more if talent was in short supply. They did not win, but were placed high enough to qualify for the regional finals to be held in Manchester two weeks later.

Sunday 15 November 1959
Johnny and The Moondogs travel to Manchester to perform on the show at the Manchester Hippodrome, Ardwick. Although they performed well, they could not afford to stay overnight in Manchester and had to leave to catch the last train back to Liverpool before the "clapometer" applause recorder decided the result, and they did not win.