Part 4: Revisiting Moondogs' History

Questions 1-2 Raised from Lewisohn Analysis

That the timelines as purported by Lewisohn are suspect is based on at least four observations made with regard to the Moondogs' history. The manner in which these observations is at odds with Lewisohn is revealed in this third part of Johnny and the Moondogs.

1) Theatres were closed to the public on Sundays. For this reason, there could have been no performance in front of an audience at the Manchester Hippodrome on Sunday 15 November 1959. The format in Manchester was the same as in Liverpool, two nightly shows running Monday to Saturday, and it is strange that Lewisohn refers to a public show on a Sunday. The theatre may have been used for private auditions that day, but Johnny and The Moondogs had already passed their private and public auditions in Liverpool. All accounts have them performing at a public show, which must have been during the Monday to Saturday timeframe.

2) John Lennon was without a guitar at the Manchester Hippodrome show, as attested by Paul and George. McCartney and Harrison have also expressed pubically that John stole a guitar at the show ! In October of 1959, he is seen in possession of a Hofner Club 40 guitar in pictures taken soon after the opening of the Casbah Club. If the Moondogs did play in November 1959, why would John not have taken this guitar? Further, there is photographic evidence showing John with his new Hofner Club 40 guitar, bought at Hessy's in Liverpool on 28 August 1959. John's Aunt Mimi paid a �17 hire-purchase deposit, according to Andy Babiuk's "Beatles Gear". The following day marked the probable reason for it's acquisition, the opening of the Casbah Coffee Club run by Pete Best's mother Mona, at which the drummer-less Quarry Men (John, Paul, George and Ken Brown) played a succession of seven Saturday nights until they split up over a row about payment. The photo appeared in the local newspaper and can be accurately dated to around the opening of the Casbah.

McCartney and Lennon at the Casbah - 1959

Question 3 Raised From Lewisohn Analysis

3) From the time in which John Lennon picked up his first guitar, he developed a bond that helped him to adjust to a numbjer of difficult and tragic life events. To this end, it would seem impossible to some that he would be without an instrument for any period of time. McCartney and Harrison has indicated over the years, however, that this was the case for a brief time period during the Moondogs days. In late 1958, he is pictured without a guitar shortly following the time of the talent show. This was on the occasion of at George's elder brother Harry's wedding reception on Saturday 20 December 1958. A search through available photos has revealed that this photo is very likely the only surviving picture of Johnny and the Moondogs. This was a proud moment for the Moondogs and Lennon and while it is not proof that Lennon did not have a guitar at the time of the reception, one could argue that had one been available Lennon would have posed with it.

Johnny and the Moondogs - December 20, 1958

Question 4 Raised From Lewisohn Analysis

4) In Andy Babiuk's "Beatles Gear" book, Graham Nash (later of The Hollies and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) recollects performing at the Hippodrome on the same show as Johnny and the Moondogs. Significantly, he mentions that Liverpool's Billy Fury (later to become a major UK pop star) also performed.

"So we went to the venue in Manchester, and on that one show of completely unknown talent were Allan and I, who later formed The Hollies, a guy named Freddid Garrity, who was later Freddie of Freddie & The Dreamers, an early English rocker called Billy Fury, and Johnny & The Moondogs, this three-piece band from Liverpool who did a Buddy Holly song. I loved them because they were doing Buddy Holly stuff - and we obviously loved Holly because we soon after named our band after him. The Moondogs had a raw edge. They looked as if they didn't give a shit about being there."

An interview with George Harrison in the New Musical Express on 16 August 1963 seems to confirm this. "I remember when Paul and I used to play guitar, and John would just sing without any instrument. We were on a Buddy Holly kick in those days, with numbers like "Think It Over" and "It's So Easy". We certainly had some laughs. We did a Carroll Levis Discoveries show in Manchester once, and Billy Fury was at the first audition. He was Ronald Wycherly then, and he did "Margot" for his number. I think we were Johnny and The Moondogs at that particular time. You were judged by the audience applause, you know, but we had to catch a train home before the end. We never did find out if we'd won ! But Billy passed his audition, I remember that".

Part 5: The Billy Fury Discovery

New Musical Express George Harrison Interview
Liverpool's Blue Angel Club - August 16, 1963

Submitted on April 6, 2002