Hey, humans. How's it going? Susan Ruth here.
Thanks for listening to another episode
of Hey Human podcast.
This is episode 419,
and my guest is Pete Best.
Pete is the original Beatles drummer. He's a
copropieter
of the Kasbah Coffee Club Suites in the
historic and
holy grail home of where the Beatles really
began.
Pete's mom, Mona, purchased the home
when Pete was young, and,
the rest, as they say, is history.
Pete's also, the cofounder of the Liverpool Beatles
Museum,
and in 1988, he founded the Pete Best
Band that is touring today. He's a songwriter,
promoter, manager, and author. We talked about his
beloved mother, Mona, his childhood
in the bombed out Liverpool post World War
2, his time with the Beatles, his time
after the Beatles,
and
what he has done with a life well
lived.
Really interesting, sweet guy. I love chatting with
him. Just just a lovely, lovely human being,
So I'm excited for you to hear this.
General Stuff Hey Human Podcast is now on
YouTube
under official Susan Ruth. So that would be
youtube dot com/officialsuzenruth.
I'm
on Patreon at susanruthism.
It helps keep the show ad free. Please
sign up for Patreon. I'm on TikTok at
susanruthism.
I'm not gonna post there a whole lot,
but here and there, I will make videos
for TikTok.
It's it's a lot. I always think, do
I really have anything to say that will
add to this
TikTok
experience for other people? And most of the
time, I come up with a no. I
don't have anything interesting to say,
but it's there, regardless.
You can check out heyhumanpodcast.com
for links and to learn more about my
guests and the show.
Check out susanruth.com
to learn more about me and my other
artistic endeavors, and follow Susan Ruthism and Hey
Human Podcast on social media.
You can find my music
on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, wherever you
get your music under Susan Ruth.
And please rate, review, and subscribe to Hey
Human Podcast on iTunes or wherever you get
your podcasts. Lots and lots of podcast places
these days.
Thank you for listening.
Be well. Be kind.
Be love.
Here we go.
Pete Best, welcome to Hey Human.
Pleasure being here, Susan. Pleasure being here. So
lovely to see you. And you as well.
Yeah.
I start every episode the same way. I
ask people to talk about
where they're from and what their childhood was
like, what shaped them as a person. Let's
start there. Well, for those of you who
don't know, I was born in India from
a English family,
military family, which had been stationed out in
India since the time of the war.
Born
1941, 24th November.
Civil War baby. Born in Madras, which I
now believe is Chena
in India,
and came to, Liverpool
in
1945,
because my father was from Liverpool,
from the famous boxing family.
The best.
Been in Liverpool ever since 1945.
Spent my childhood in Liverpool, education in Liverpool,
went to high school in Liverpool, played rugby
in Liverpool, sport, the usual stuff. I suppose
what shaped my life was is that, my
mother owned a club called the Casbah,
which was
in the cellars of this wonderful Victorian mansion,
which she she bought. And there's a quaint
little story about that Susan. She bought it
because
she always wanted we moved around Liverpool. With
the for those of you who don't know,
Liverpool, Liverpool was blitzed very badly during the
war.
And in 1945,
when we came,
there was a lot of war damage, a
lot of blitz in,
you know, deprivation and, you know, destitution.
Housing in Liverpool at that time was very
scarce. You know?
So for a period in Liverpool, we moved
around Liverpool. We started off in town center
and a flat above a pub in Casey
Street, which is still there today. The pub's
still there.
We're still going to have a pint now
and again. And then we moved from there
because the flat was haunted. We found out
the flat was haunted. Haunted by whom?
Do you know? The previous owner. Yeah. It
had been an old man
and apparently
saw the landlady said Ma Richardson. Okay. She
basically said now and
said,
because
of the circumstances he died and the fact
that he did allegedly, he's he wasn't found
for a couple of days.
So because he was wasn't found for a
couple of days, the story goes that he's
a restless spirit which haunts
the previous property. That was the restless spirit
that we encountered.
So
for them all, basically saying now, and I
said, I'm not
stick that one. I'm not staying here with
the restless spirit. So
we moved on and we moved to a
1000 of states on the outskirts of Liverpool.
And then we eventually ended up
in,
rural Liverpool, which is West Harvey West Harvey
Village.
And my brother was coming home from school
one day.
We passed the testitute building at Hammonds Green.
And,
once told my mother, Mowg, and said and
said it's a fantastic house which is up
for sale.
And she went and looked at it, and
she fell in love with it. Even though
in those days,
I nicknamed it Dracula's castle. Okay? It was
that run down and overgrown and everything.
Which she transformed it into this incredible shangula.
But what happened was the funny thing was
she went so much further that
John was my stepfather, John.
On Saturday night, I said, seeing this wonderful
house,
Would you be interested in buying it? You
know, let's move. Let's upgrade property.
And he went, no. It's a big boy's
elephant. He said, I'm not interested in doing
it. She didn't tell anyone.
Typical of a moaner.
And she went and pawned all the jewelry,
nice and bettered on a horse
called never say die,
which was running in the 1954
Derby. Okay?
Which is a big race over here in
England.
And,
it was being ridden by it was an
American horse being ridden by a novice jockey
called Lester Piggott who went on to become
world champion jockey.
And it was a rank outsider, and the
price was 33 to 1. Okay?
Now she pawned all of you. He bettered
on this horse. Horse was called never say
die.
So we had a situation.
We're sitting there watching the Derby run, and
most normally a cool, calm, classic person, you
know, very patient and, you know, low key.
Yeah. And just for clarification, Mo, is Mona
your mother?
That's correct. For people that don't know. Yeah.
Yeah. We effectively call her Mo. You know,
full name's Mona. And,
well, motive, you know, the multitude of people
that see, maybe you only have to mention
more. It's like, yeah, we know Mona. We
know Mona.
So we're sitting there watching the Derby shoes,
and then we could tell the most
very intense
and then see dice coming up on the
rails, coming up on the rails, and we
see it going in front and going in
front and going in front.
And I won. Okay. And
Mo, mother, Mo, Mona, whatever we're gonna call
her.
She went from this cool calm, placid person
watching the Derby with great intent
to the screaming banshee running around the kitchen
going.
I've won my doubts. I've won my house.
And with the the money from
that, she bought Haman's green.
And she became the first woman in England
to acquire a mortgage.
That's a huge deal.
Wow. That was something that she was unheard
of in those days.
But she did
it. And
then, we actually moved in, around about
1956, 57 into the property.
And ever since then, people will know that
the family motto is never say die. Okay?
It stayed with us,
and it'll stay with us for future generations.
Okay? It's inbound because of Moe.
We had sellers underneath the house,
and Mo was sitting there watching a program
one day. I was about the 2 Ice
Coffee Club in London,
which all the English rock and rollers, little
Richard. Sorry, Cliff Richards.
We will leave also,
the shadows, people like that, Tony Sheridan.
And I was sitting there, and she went,
people got shovels underneath the house, haven't we?
And I turned around and said, yes.
And she went,
what do you think about the idea of
sending it into a coffee club? So I'd
say now it sounds fantastic.
So she went, yeah. I think we'll do
that. So I said, who's gonna do it
more?
So she said, you are. Okay. So
that was the challenge.
And for the next 6 months, Susan,
we had,
the back garden. For those of you who
don't know Haynes Green,
it's an old Victorian mansion,
18/60,
stands in an acre of ground at full
cake,
detached property.
And for the next 6 months, the back
garden was like a building site.
There was concrete tip is drawn at timber
tip is gone in there, cement,
sand, timber, cable, you name it. It was
a building site, but eventually we got it
completed.
So the next thing
was Moe needed a bank to open the
clock. She was gonna call it the Casper,
eastern influence again,
And she had this image of
the Casbah being a a place where the
the kids of Liverpool
could listen to music. Okay?
So the war cry became,
come to the Casbah, which allegedly is the
famous Charles
expression he
used, whether it was Charles Boyer said or
not, it was a material
because basically what happened was
every kid who came to the Casper
come to the Casper. That was the walkway
that was out there. The brand which should
have opened
up.
It was the last year of courts that
And 2 of the members of that band
came down and saw my mother moaner one
day and said, man, it said, couple of
weeks before opening day, actually. Okay.
Because the opening night was 29th August 1959.
And they basically said now and said, no.
We got bad news for you. Well, your
band is broken up.
I'm always happy to be destroyed. She turned
down and said, my god. What's gonna happen?
I need a band. We're opening in fortnight.
So George basically turned around and went, I
am to know a couple of guys who
aren't doing anything more.
And it's gonna be a residency, and I'll
I'll go and have a word with them.
And off he went.
He came down the next day. They turned
out to be John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Right. And that was George Harrison.
That was George Harrison. Yeah. Yeah.
They came down and show my mother, Mo
Moe put the deal to them. She was
gonna pay them £3.
A nice okay.
No drummer. Okay. There was John, George, Paul,
and Ken Brown. Right?
And it was a residency. It was like
gold.
So they realized that there was a bit
of painting to be done. The club still
wanted to be decorated.
And for I'm certain lots of your listeners
may have actually already been to the Casbah
so they know what we're talking about. But
for those of you who haven't, I'll explain
that the Casbah still stands in its totality.
Right?
And
because of their involvement,
John Lennon painted the aspect ceiling, which is
still in the Casbah today. Okay?
McCartney painted the rainbow ceiling, which is still
in the Casbah today.
George painted the salmon ceiling, still the same
in the Caswell today.
I painted the spider's web in the panting
room, still in the Caswell today.
Mueller commissioned Cynthia Lennon to paint John Lennon
over the fireplace
in the the coffee bar area.
That's still there today.
And all the stars, which
basically it's
it's the the holy grail of the beetle
trail. It's like stepping back in time. Okay.
It's like going back in time to a
1959,
60 coffee club with music.
But the incredible thing was the stars, which
everyone painted John George Paul simply and she's
up with Ken Brown, me, it goes on
and on and on and on.
We got them valued about 10 years ago.
We're gonna,
like, 10 years of working each star, which
is on the ceiling,
the coffee bar area,
Sotheby's valued it at 2,500
pound a star. Right?
Now there's something like about close to 200
stars on the ceiling.
So it's pretty valuable that ceiling up there
along with all the other attributes.
But the great thing about it is,
you know,
the club stands in its total originality.
What we've done today, just to bring you
listeners backwards and run a speed with the
project that we're involved in, right,
We've converted this wonderful Victorian mansion into what
we call the Casbah Coffee Club Suites.
And, the striped suites,
the level suite, the McCartney suites, Harrison suites,
Sutcliffe suites, and of course, the best suites.
Right?
Well, it's unique,
Susan, and as much as that, it's where
The Beatles played.
It's where The Beatles slept. It's where the
Beatles passed. It it was their home away
from home.
We've gone Airbnb with it. We opened
officially August,
which was a couple of days ago,
eligible to be booked through Airbnb.
So people go on Facebook, private group websites,
book yourselves in,
come in and know a unique experience. You
know? The building stayed in the family
and became
it's now protected. It's a heritage home. Right?
It is. Yeah. Yeah.
We have got
we're a great tool to build in the
heritage status. Yes.
That's fabulous.
I wanna go back to your childhood,
and
I'm curious,
when you move to some place
that has seen
the worst of things when it is
so demolished,
as a little kid,
are you looking around thinking,
this means I can build it from the
ground up myself, or was there a sense
of, oh, it's it's wrecked, and I don't
know what to do here. Did it inspire
the kids
your age?
I think I was inspired
simply because of the fact of
I suppose London in Liverpool, Christmas Eve 1945,
cold, dark, witchy morning,
seeing the deprivation which he'd gone on, but
seeing that even at a young gaze and
I don't think he realized that at that
time, because there's only about 4, maybe 5.
But as I grew older in Liverpool, I
suddenly realized that, you know, the people of
Liverpool have got this incredible spirit,
which is
pure optimism,
you know, to never defeat
it. And I've come from a strong family
where that's the essence of your backbone, you
know, so
it fitted well that the people of Liverpool,
you know, had strong backbones. My family had
got a strong backbone as well, you know,
so it seemed to me as, you know,
it was like,
fine, this is the place for
us. But as Liverpool emerged,
and I was Liverpool transpired.
I think I grew with Liverpool as well.
You know, we saw the changes happen.
It was inspiration to see the changes happening.
It was nice to be part of it.
And, you know, consequently, it's the results
after, you know, the musical business, which has
been there long before I ever started the
boards. Right? You know, there's a musical heritage
which went on long before I ever came,
before the Beatles ever came alive,
which was going back to jazz band, you
know, Trinidad,
steel drum bands, all that kind of stuff
jazz bands, you name it and emanate it
out of Liverpool. We had it.
Oh, yeah.
Very inspirational. And, you know, it's still
very inspirational even today because
Liverpool from 1945
to Liverpool
1920, 24
It's so different,
and it's actually been incredible to be part
of that particular journey
and see the changes,
and see how Liverpool is vibrant now, and
the Casbah Casbah Coffee Troupe Suites is part
of that.
Your mom
being inspired
like that,
she was certainly ahead of her time, it
sounds like. And the fact that she saw
a need for kids, which
historically
are ignored,
the fact that she saw that there was
something to do so that kids felt safe
and welcome
is humongous.
Yeah. It is well, just
if you knew Mona, she's a humongous character.
Okay.
They broke the mold.
Okay. No wonder my she disappeared. Right? But
she's still up there looking afterwards. So God
bless you, mom.
Yeah. She had a humongous character that, you
know, she had,
she had a mission. She wasn't satisfied with
you still in a coffee club, calling it
the Casper.
She had a dream. She wanted to see
kids. She wanted to be music to the
kids of Liverpool.
And that's what she
did. Because through a preservation and determination
and all the resources of what a Brazilian
woman,
the foresight of the dreams.
She did that.
And the Casbah
coffee club became the catalyst for the Mercy
Pizza.
And,
you know, Rogen, I have so aptly turned
on, said the media at that time many,
many years ago named her the mother of
Mercy beach. And that couldn't have
been given to a more odd person. You
know? Yeah. Well, yeah, humongous character. Yeah. Before
you started playing drums, I know that she
I read that she got you a drum
kit. But before you picked up the drums,
had you an aptitude for music? Were you
interested in that?
Like most kids in Liverpool,
when the skits and crew came along, you
know, skiffle craze and Elvis Presley, I ran
out and bought a cheap guitar
and stood in front of the mirror and
shook me hips and denim.
You know, that kind of stuff.
But it wasn't it wasn't meant to be.
It didn't seem quite right for me anyway.
I was more up to, you know, banging
my fingers on the table, pots and pans.
So when the opportunity came along to actually
start the man, the black jacks, which is
what I did,
it seemed appropriate that I would end up
being the drummer.
Yeah. Seemological,
you know, so, that's how I ended up
being a drummer.
What did you like about it?
I don't know that. I suppose the fact
that I'm sitting at the back and pounding
out of rhythm,
energy, energetic.
I can be as loud and as savage
as I wanna be, or it can be
as quiet and as mellow as I wanna
be.
It's funny. I was talking to a friend
of mine this morning,
and, we were talking about different band members
and what they represent
in the band.
I grew up doing music as well and
having bands.
And for me, I was always drawn to
the drummer, and he said, why is that?
And I said, you get the sense of
the drummer that he can do a lot
of things at once, if you know what
I mean.
That leaves a lot to the imagination soon.
That leaves a lot.
Yeah. We are we are multi talented. Yeah.
We are, as you know, most probably know,
drummers are multi talented. Yeah.
Tell me about your friendships that were developing
at that time. So you were friends with
Harrison
George Harrison. You were you were friends with
John and Paul too, or is that when
they came to play that you met them?
And were you already buddies?
No.
Prior to I've seen George playing at a
club called Laurens,
where the last year court had emanated from.
A bit of course, they broke up. And
then
when they actually started playing at the Casper
in 19 59, it's the quality men because
Moe asked John, what name are you going
to be called? And he said, well, we
used to be called the quality men. So
he said, oh, that's fine. We told you
the quality men.
So they were builders to quality man. No
drummer.
But that's how I got to know them,
you know, because,
you know, they help decorate the club.
Wasn't school friends with them. You know, my
side of school was different to theirs. You
know, even though they were high school, I
was in a different part of Liverpool.
Rival rival schools, if you wanna be quite
honest about it.
There was very much a case of
the friendship
developed through the Casper,
you know, because it
it didn't just become
like a for lots of kids in Liverpool.
I better
explain this. You gotta sort of try and
paint the the atmosphere of the Casbah. Okay?
It was a meeting place as well for
young kids. It was a social occasion
where all this wonderful stuff was going on,
music and
friendship and,
You know, romance, you could find her on
the Casbah,
and it was very much a case of
they enjoyed that atmosphere. They enjoyed the being
positive, that particular embryo.
So
my friendship with the mercy through the Casper,
And then they dissipate,
they had arguments over money and couldn't play
the Casper for a while.
But cut a long story short because of
my involvement and the fact that I'd started
a band, and I was playing drums.
You needed a drum as I go to
Germany, and I got the phone calls from
Paul,
which said now and said, you know, we
know you're playing drums. Would you be interested
in coming? We are now called The Beatles.
Even though when I joined them, we were
the Silver Beatles. Okay. For one night,
one particular night.
And then it was decided on our way
out to Hamburg.
We're gonna drop the silver, and we were
the Beatles.
Okay? And I've stayed with us ever since.
But, yeah,
Through that friendship,
which nurtured in the cast, I became the
Beatles' room. Yeah. I knew them for 3
years because of it's an autumn in 59.
Joined them in 60,
August 1960,
and basically 2 years to the day.
So I knew them for 3, played with
him for 2 years.
My joining them was the the first time
I joined, which was August 1960.
So my period with them was from August
60 to August 62.
And Germany was really the start of the
big climb.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
with all Hamburg, I think you could put
my hands on my heart and even after
you did survive in beetles.
You know, that haven't been for Germany.
Hamburg, you know,
it may never happened.
Because consequently, what happens is in the long
hours that we were playing because we didn't
know that when we were going out, we
know you rock and roll musicians who read
rock and roll musicians from Liverpool.
When we got out there, we thought we
were gonna be playing in the Kaiser ghetto.
That was the first dream shattering blow. It
was like you're not playing the Kaiser Kelly,
you're playing the Indra,
which was a grotty little crow, but the
end of the grocery fry heart.
And when we went down there, there was
a couple of people arguing over beer prices
in
there. And Bruno Farshke, who was the manager
who took us out to Germany,
or the promotion that took us out to
Germany. So he'd say, man, instead of wanting
you to make the sense of another ties
of Keller. Right?
So he said, okay,
We're rock and rollers with from Liverpool. We
can do it.
He said, now I said, how long are
we playing? And he said, oh, he said
Monday to Friday, you will play
6, 7 hours a night,
15 minutes off on the hour.
Okay.
6 hours?
At night. Okay.
Monday to Friday. Right?
Saturday, we had to play 6 o'clock to
6 o'clock in the morning.
And someday we had to play
6 o'clock to 3 o'clock in the morning.
Right? So
you take all those hours that we had
to perform.
We went from being this mediocre,
little rock and roll band
to be in this pulsating
savage
air blast and great rock and roll band
which conquered Germany okay conquered Hamburg
and of course when we came back to
Liverpool we just pinned the kids ears back
in Liverpool that was
we played the Casper on 19th December 1960,
That was our 1st gig in Liverpool.
That was the start of people, mania,
and it started on the Casper. Before the
game was,
silly, a funny story.
Motor builders is the fabulous people starting up
in Hamburg.
So the place was absolutely healing.
And,
George, George, and Paul were the first to
go down.
And, the kids looked in and went on
a minute. That's John, George, and Paul used
to be in the quarry
man.
Who are these Beatles from Hamburg?
So lo and behold, right, Chelsea standing in
for Stu. So if he was stayed in
Germany, cause he torn in love with Australia,
he followed out a couple of weeks later.
Chosen myself because she hasn't been in the
black church with me.
We're walking down the stairs into the Casbah.
And the kids go.
That's chosen. Peter used to be in the
black church.
Who's the hell are these people? So they
all left it to the back door where
Mona was.
And they basically turn as
a owner
who were the Beatles,
and she went,
give them a chance. I read wonderful things
about them. Right? I've had wonderful things. They've
just conquered
Hamburg. Right?
And
should give me some big deal piled back
in again. We're standing there.
Paul kicks off to this old man's song
red sails in the sunset.
And we've been used to go across crowds
in Hamburg.
Right? We play the number at the end
of it. Yeah. Banging on the table, dancing
on the table, gay ball. Yes.
Speels.
Silence.
We looked at one of them, it was
like, what have we done wrong? He's played
the wrong notes or something like that or
sung the wrong words
And then his rumble started to,
and it emanated. It was like an earthquake,
you know, starting it. It was the kids
screaming, starting to scream.
And I always turn around and say,
that particular night when we played the opening
night at the Casper, the first big thing
back again, That was the stars of the
old mania.
Yeah.
That's incredible. So there was definitely a sense
of you all looking at each other thinking
this is something. Oh, wow. You understood that
that was happening
at the time?
I think we saw it. We realized it
in Hamburg.
Okay.
Because it it took us a while. We
didn't we didn't conquer Hamburg overnight. It took
took us a couple of weeks. But, you
know, we eventually dominated Hamburg. We became the
best things out of Hamburg. Okay.
And of course, when we came back to
Liverpool,
the kids had never seen any of the
overhead, anything like it. Right?
Because you've got to imagine,
you know, the bands in Liverpool are all
still in the gold army's
suits and, you know, white
wing pickers and
black shirts and all that kind of stuff.
Typical rock and roll.
And we come back from hamburger, our heads
down by our shoulders. We got our leather
jackets on, we cowboy boots on,
you know, black C shirts, and it was
just like the complete rock and roll image.
And the music they were playing, and how
they play a bit.
Compared to the way that we were playing
music, it was just a good suit on
different entities.
You know, they were lightweight.
We were just blasting out the savage rock
and roll. And with the image,
the cameras, the kids in Liverpool were just
like,
what is this? You know, did she
No. It hit him.
You've seen it on the films, but
here's 5 scouts is bringing it back home
again and dishing it out to them, you
know. And I imagine
all those out first of all, I can't
believe you all had to play for 6
hours straight, but all those hours day after
day after day,
I mean, you all must have been monsters
up there.
Oh,
we we enjoyed ourselves up there. We let
off steam up there. Okay?
We drank.
You know, we enjoyed ourselves. And we we
carried that
exhibitionism, but I suppose that's the way he
could put it.
Exhibitionism on the stage.
But because of that exhibition, I mean, the
long hours, and we had to get rid
of our frustrations and tensions,
The stage show
with the musicianship group, you know, when it
was that package that we brought back,
we've gone out as, you know,
mediocre rock and roll band, but we came
back with this,
you know, frenetic, savage,
totally different looking,
imageized,
you know, rock and roll band that the
kids in Liverpool were just like, oh my
god. What the hell is happening?
So the funny thing was the next time
we played in Liverpool,
which is a couple of nights afterwards.
The word was out in the street. We
were every promoter's dream.
Right? They were all fine to both. Simply
because the fact you booked The Beatles
and you get them on your dance floor,
the place is gonna be even.
Right? So,
it worked well for us initially. Yeah.
Just 2 years, they came to you and
said that Ringo Starr was gonna take over.
2 years. Yeah.
I mean, that's had to have been such
a blow. I know it's a long time
ago now and certainly well publicized.
Yeah. Yeah. But, again, having been in bands
myself, self,
sort of unceremoniously
coming to you and saying, that's it. We're
doing this.
Did you at the time, I mean, you've
had a long time to think about it.
But the time,
for a teenager or a young man,
that had to have been devastating.
Yeah. Don't get me wrong. I mean, when
it happens, I mean, things were
everything we were doing was a move in
the right direction. You You know, we'd come
get Hamburg, we come back, we come good
Liverpool.
We gone back to Hamburg, we played a
better club, we play in the Tony Sheridan.
We got a recording German recording contract, polo,
and head off to Liverpool guys to do
that. How to record health my Bonnie, which
opened the doors for so many things,
you know, ended up with a manager, Brian
Epstein.
So everything was moving along, you know, that
this little dream that we had
of being the top of most of the
popple most, you know,
just going in the right direction.
So when the dismissal came in August,
was it August 62, mid August 62, 14th
to 15th or something like that,
That was the last thing on my mind.
You know? That was the last thing I
was expecting. You know? We were
you know, we'd been sent down by a
decade, which was a little bit of a
kick in the seat for us. Then we
found out the reason for it.
Mike Schmidt had signed Brian Poole at the
Seminoles because they were a local band, and
he was friends with them. Then, you know,
made
sense even though we were the better band.
Right?
But, you know, Brian persevered. We persevered.
We went back. We almost start up in
Hamburg in April 62.
While we were there, we got a telegram
from Brian saying around saying, you guys are
gonna record the contract
with EMI,
part of the division.
Get yourself ready. You've gone into studio 6th
June,
1962,
which is what we did.
You know, that was like, wow.
It's happening. You know, all of the things
are starting to come to fruition.
We're gonna have an English release and possibly
that would go into the charts and, you
know, you start pipe dream. You start piping.
Actually, it was alright. He said and said,
you know, it didn't work out that way
for me. You know? It wasn't meant to
be. My karma wasn't dressed in that right
direction.
And,
you know, I was called as a Brian's
office, a plate that happened the night before.
And
as you'd say, now to say, it's been
well chronicled. You know, what the decision was
about and the Sure.
Conspiracy theories over the dismissal and the reasons
for it. I'll most probably go on too
long after I've left the planet.
You know, there'll still be people out there
still trying to decide
what the definitive reason was. You know?
I wish you a good luck. You know?
If they ever find out, let me know.
You know? So Yeah.
So, yeah, that was it.
So, it came as a shock.
Because it cost us, cost me a lot
of heartache and grievances
because one minute you've been a top dog
with the top band in Liverpool and people
were happy.
And the next day, it was like, you
know, you're a nobody.
Well, especially with the lineage of the CASBA
and then needing you to be the drummer
to go to Germany and all these things,
to be that cog
that's pushing the wheel forward and forward and
forward, and then suddenly, they're like, oh, sorry.
Yes. Like, the wheel fell off. It was
somewhere in the line, but
okay. It's it's one of them. It happens.
The only thing I can say now to
say about it is that
I suppose
it it's certainly from being a naive thinking
rock and roller
to be in a little bit more streetwise,
a bit more realistic about how you're gonna
lead your life. Okay? And don't be so
trustworthy with people,
you know, because you never know when they
may stab you in the back.
I suppose it, you know, parts of life
stretch button. It's an enlightenment. You either learn
from what you thought from it. Yeah. I'm
so fortunate that I learned from it. Okay.
So,
you know, I have no qualms. I have
no qualms. You know, they haven't.
That's the question
is looking
back, do you think you would have been
able to handle
what it became?
Do you think it would have fit who
you are as a person? Because I I
don't know
that everyone is suited for the things that
come with all of that. It's great scrutiny,
a lot of pain, a lot of suffering,
along with the fame and fortune.
It's got a lot of negative stuff. Right?
Do you Yeah.
Yeah. Do you think you would have been
able to handle all that? I think it's
one of those ones. So you're actually in
that situation, you wouldn't know.
I always looked at it from the fact
of whatever came along, whatever
cared for the American
expression
was thrown at us. We handled it.
You know? So it was like, we'll find
it. If that's,
you know, we've gotta make sacrifices
that comes with fame and fortune.
I don't think even they themselves
and myself,
most of them because they were more directly
involved in it,
would have realized
the degree
of fame that they acquired.
You know, they rewrote basically music history.
They have become music legends. They must probably
be
year 22,000
or whatever it might be. They'll still be
talking about the Beatles to be positive, you
know,
musical history about folklore. You know?
I don't think they themselves realized
at that stage
how big they would become.
No one realized
that okay let me never like dreams
all dreams again
big boys on it's getting records the number
one the English charts
And that was that to us was there.
We made it. We're there. We've got a
record. Let's offer the dogs. Right?
My god. What happened afterwards?
No one in the right mind would have
thought about that. But to what you turn
around and said,
they weren't aware of it at the time.
But with the fame and fortune they achieved,
that comes a lot of heartache
and a loss of
personal life. You know, your personal life suckers.
I'd like to think
that I would have been able to persevere
with that because of persevere with everything else.
And, you know, persevered and overcome the biggest
obstacle in my life, which she's getting, which
is out of the band, which went on
to become the biggest thing in children.
So I'd like to think that, yeah, possibly
a little,
you know, a few problems like that I
would have been able to handle. Yeah. Sure.
Yeah. Did you keep doing music long after?
I know you you do music still to
this day, but did you take
a time away?
Did you step step down and say, oh
my god. That has devastated me, and I'm
gonna walk away for a minute?
Not initially. No.
It went the other way to be quite
honest, even though I did in 68, give
them music, but there was a reason for
it. I think because of what had happened,
it would have been easy for me to
basically turn around and say, oh, easy for
me
to turn on and go on packing it
in.
You know I've had enough of this it's
not for me
it worked the opposite with me right when
I got back almost sort of
logically gone through things
and it's like, hang on a minute. Just
because this is out and
you can't just give in.
Right? So there's got to be another side,
there's got to be a projection of
it. And I think it worked the other
side, it may be more determined.
Because I had to go out and reinvent
myself again.
I had to prove to people again because
of what had happened and the stigmas that
were flying around.
I had to go out and basically prove
to people. It's like, hang on a minute.
Yeah. I am a good musician. I do
play the drums. I have got a good
band.
Right? I've got a recording contract. I'm up
there with them. Right?
It was just I was up there with
them, but I couldn't keep the same pace
going debits too fast for me.
What did your mom think of all of
this happening?
She was a little upset by circumstances.
The current expression she used when she was
on a TV interview.
I'm trying to remember her exact words. I
think they went to the effect of
it could have been handled better.
I think that was the way she expressed
it.
And I suppose that sums it up in
a tea cups. So, you know, it could
have been handled better the way it was
handled.
When you look back, most probably not the
best.
But when you look back,
thoughts about it many made well, I've had
many, many years to think about it. And
every now and again, a flashback
to them. I mean, you better put themselves
in your deposition as well.
And I'm just trying to cover up for
them a little bit here. Okay.
It's like,
even though George Martin words had been twisted,
he never say a man and said, you
know, I'm gonna use the session drummer because
Pete's crap. It was like, can you use
the session drummer because
it's more economical?
Pitch sound is too
big, so we'll be getting under wraps again.
Okay. Whatever context that got taken out of,
that moment in time,
They may have sought thought to themselves,
oh my god.
Wanna use session drummers, but we are in
danger of losing every COVID contract again.
Okay. So how do we alleviate that?
Get rid of peace.
You know, that's that seems to be
where the problem is. You know, the evidence
in now instead
of using session news isn't for the others
and she's the session runner.
And it's not uncommon for session drummers to
be different than the band's drummers. That happens
a lot on recordings. There are no modern
day that quickly.
You know, it's in our I said,
no one was more surprised,
when we got in search with them once
afterwards.
And he said, man, I said, no one
was more surprised than I was.
When Ringo ended up, he said, I was
fully expecting peace.
He said but the fact that Ringo landed
up
he said I listened to Ringo and he
said it still came up with the same
logic
I'm still going to use Andy White to
session them
But what he did say now and say
it was common practice in those days.
Right?
Lots of other bands,
use session runners. Okay. Nothing was mentioned about
the fact that a session number had been
used.
What physically happened on stage life
didn't make any difference.
Right.
Yeah. Do you stay in touch with Paul
Ringo to this day?
I put my hand on my heart and
say, man, I say no. Okay?
Simply because of the fact.
Many years ago,
I did try to get in search and
have to find out
the wrong personal views as regards to what
had happened. Okay.
Would it became very apparent they didn't want
to sort them.
And when people don't, you know, pick up
the phone or they make excuses, they're not
in town or you know, he's not available,
this is that new. And Brian Epstein was
the same. Okay, it wasn't just that
because it did show, I'd say, you know,
get into Brian a little bit more and
find out what had happened, but all of
a sudden we became unavailable.
So life shifts on, you know, you you
drift further and further apart. I've all sat
down and said, you know, I've got no
qualms. It's all about meeting
Paul and Ringo.
A lot of people think that it's gonna
be, you know, the fights of the century.
It's
from my point of view, we're all elder
statesmen now. So god mighty
60 years closer past due to the bridge.
You know, we're grandfathers. We got grandchildren.
Of course. Yeah. But, you know, if we
ever get together,
let's not talk about the reason why it
happened. That that's peripheral now. Okay. No.
I don't think Paul gives a damn. Ringo's
not worried anyway.
I've come past it. Right? Yeah. You know,
let's talk about life. You know, you know,
you have to go to Sandy, your grandkids,
what's your family life like? Okay.
I don't know if you're gonna be a
bottle of Scotch in the table ring super
few, you know, while we're doing it. Well,
that's the way I look at it, you
know, and whether he wants, to, you know,
that happens, whether it's
a a public meeting or whether it's PR
audiences
or whatever the case might be,
whichever way he wants to play it, that
role with it. And look,
I've always said, I'm upset.
If it's meant to be, it would be,
you know, that that's my charm. And that's
that's that's my outlook on life. Okay. So
I'm not losing sleep over.
If it happens, it happens. It'd be nice
to happen.
Mhmm. If it doesn't,
life holds on. Yeah.
I'm gonna ask you kind of a weird
question only because you you brought up the
ghosts in the house from when you were
a kid.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. After George and John after
John passed and then after George passed, did
either of them visit you?
Spiritually lives.
I I think possibly, you know, I I
mentioned before a restless spirit,
you know, that that's someone who
hasn't comes to terms with it. Okay. I
suppose
not a good way of expressing,
but
they were snatched
before the end of their natural life. Do
you understand what I'm trying to say that?
You know, John was murdered by the city
of Chapman.
And George was taken from us by this
horrible
seaweed. Right?
So they're all natural in a way, but
maybe a left on not being restless,
you know,
or a reason to go back and visit.
You know, they might have come back and
visited me.
I may have gone on business at both
the main point of angle. I don't know.
Are they Casper? Maybe? Oh, the Casper? Yeah.
Well, no. I wasn't visited by them. But
I don't think I'd have been frightened. I'm
not frightened the ghost. So
if it did happen or it happens
or I do get a visitation, I'll let
you know. I'll let you know. Please. I
I would be curious.
I'm glad that
you
were compensated
later on with the anthology one. That's good.
I mean, because I think there's
for a lot of people that hear your
story,
there's a
it's hard not to take it personally for
anyone that's been in a a situation
that is
likened to that. Not on that scale. I
mean, it's you can't touch what that scale
is.
But
to have to know that you got compensated,
in some way at some point,
that's a good thing. Yeah. Yeah.
To me, it was like because of
little those of you don't know, there were
numerous projects that I thought that I may
have been included in. Okay? To, you know,
the BBC saves me with you to stop.
So when the anthology
was leaked that it was gonna come out
as a possibility. I just thought, well,
if they make an approach to make an
approach you know if I'm on it I'm
on it if I'm not on it I'm
on
it and I got a phone call from
Neil
who was in charge of Apple at the
time.
And he basically said that, I said, Peter
considering
some of the trucks.
You know, would you be interested?
Sweats and I've
got no problem with that. So I said,
okay.
He said, we keep you informed. That's history
turns out now.
You know, it being from 1 or 2
trucks to get them to get end up
being sent trucks on a 30 one out
of
60. So once he got to that stage,
then it was like, okay, mister lawyer,
you take care of it. And that's how
they sorted it all up. Yeah. A lot
of people because there was money involved in
it. Think that, okay, that must have been
the restitution for Pete. That that's like he's
received some gratification. So,
you know, he's got a little bit of
payback, so that make him a happy man.
Right?
What do you don't realize
prior to that?
I was already a happy man. I was
already comfortable by my own endeavors. So don't
get me wrong Right? And the public don't
get me wrong. Okay.
You know, I'm not saying announcing, you know,
don't give me money. Right? It's fine. I
wake up for it out, but I'll take
it. But it was a little bit like
icing on the cake.
From my point of view,
I looked at it, it's fine icing on
the cake because I could have been on
one track.
I was on 10 tracks.
So I'd like to think that that was
a little bit of payback to show how
important you were
during that period.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
What did you do then for your life?
What was your life's work?
68. I opted out of show business at
Sanano said that was my, you know, as
a proof to people.
By then, I was married, I've flown a
lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely girl,
Kathy, and, I've been married to it for
61 years. Congrats. Sort of that. Yeah. Family
man, that's your decided the coin, you know,
I'm a musician on one side,
different hats I wear, you know,
Casper Coffee Cook Suites owner,
Liberty, it was museum owner,
you know, people stand
recording.
Articles on and on. But, you know, you
you're in the field. You know what you're
saying? But I'll be going on about it.
So it's very much a case of
68,
burdensome. I was married and I made a
conscious decision.
I'm gonna bring my family.
Yeah.
I had the responsibility.
I've always seen around and said it would
have been a single guide.
Most strings attached, most of we had to
been hammering on,
But it didn't take a hold to them
with trucks. And,
you know, I'm very pleased to turn around
and say that,
you know, up to 1988,
I became a regular guy.
And then 1980s,
I did a one off concert in Liverpool.
After a great deal of persuasion, they've been
after me for many years to do this
particular concert, which is a beautiful,
conference in Liverpool, the big Liverpool people conference.
And,
I agreed, but I said, I'll do with
my own
the way I wanna do it.
And I just said, I'll get some
good old mates from the,
the old days.
We play some rock and roll.
And I did. And I got my younger
brother Rose and throw his drum kit on
stage with me.
So my mother was still alive then. So
she could see the youngest and the eldest
son were both drummers playing on stage at
the same time.
Beautiful.
God of a sudden, maybe a one off.
So go to the Billy Kinsey, Kenny party,
Dave Goldie, great rockers from way back.
And we just got up on stage and
blasted off some great rock and roll. It
went down
a storm
and another came up after and
I
said,
no. It It was only gonna be a
one off.
My god. How right she was.
So because since 1988, I've been treading the
boards again.
And I joined every moment of me. You
know, I've got a great band, which he
just finished doing a couple of dates in
the states.
And, we're looking forward to going back again.
You know? I love that. That's always lived
in you.
We had a ball, my crowds were great
and made a lot of new friends.
The love to stuff we were playing,
giving it was lovely, you know, gives a
great boost, you know, great reports, great feedback
from the gigs as well. So It's great.
Let's talk about the the suites. What was
the decision to do that?
Yeah. We've had it we we wanted to
develop the image in Mo, this humongous
character. Right?
And give it a gratitude note. The thanks
that she also
readily
deserved.
We're gonna have at this idea in the
back of our minds to
change
Haymands Green
into
a beetle orientated
wholesale.
And not not don't get me wrong. I
don't want it to be like a beetle
strong
whereby you go on every room, there's a
picture there and a picture there, and, you
know, it's like you swallowed up by big
mania all around it.
It's unique, and that this is why I
keep using that word unique.
We decided that
the house
of both the Casper
was the Beatles played in the Casper. They
rehearsed in the Casper. Okay.
But they party, they slept. They played. They
rehearsed in the rooms of both.
So we've converted them
into 5 suites, Caswell Coffee Club Suites, the
Leonard Suite, McCarthy Suites,
Harrison Suites, Socolv Suite, and of course, the
best suites. Right?
And, they're all synonymous with the characters.
But the uniqueness
about it is
the people
who will open up, we've gone public,
August 1 a couple of days ago.
Public launch is gonna be the 21st
August,
And but we are open with,
open via Airbnb.
So people wanna go Airbnb
and check out Caswell Coffee Club Suites.
You'll see the suites gorgeously designed.
Okay.
Come over and see us. Right?
And
come and join us the unique
worldwide opportunity to come and stay where the
people slept,
played, and partied.
And you better be there as well. You
better be there, love. I'm gonna come I'm
coming. I'm absolutely.
Are you kidding? I'm absolutely coming there. Tell
me, is the Casbah underneath? Is the is
it still a venue? Is it still serving
coffee and and thing? No. No. No. No.
There's still coffee.
Because with the advent of the
the cash flow coffee treats now we're up
and running.
Again. I know the projection that might be
okay. It's
a great tourist attraction at the present moment.
It's booked will only by
by appointments, you know, because we have to
bring a tour guide in.
We'll tell them the story of the wonderful
Casper and Mona and, you know, the Beatles
and the Coyman.
But there's so so now because
and it's an idea of who I'm not
gonna bandy about. Okay.
He doesn't know it at the moment. We're
gonna bandy at a time.
I have possibly where we, you know, we
may start setting coffee down there again, you
know, is it that's
sort of subtraction people can come. They can
do the tour.
They can sit off and have a coffee
with us. You know? So we may project
that one. We'll take a little bit steps
further, but I'll keep you informed
Well, my vote is that you open it
up and have it happen again and maybe
even utilize the stage and have acoustic sets
or something that's more
mellow
and interesting.
No. Well, you never know. You see? You
never know. The venue is there. Right? So
let's just let this get this one off
the floor,
and,
we'll go back and start thinking about that
as a little venue.
Yeah. I'm gonna put links on heyhumanpodcast.com
so people can find everything really easily, but
your website is pbest.com?
Peapbest.com
is my website.
If you go on to the Airbnb website,
recast.copygroupsuites,
even though I mentioned that on my website,
It's mentioned on the Liverpool Beatles Museum website
as well, obviously, involved with.
Tell me about that a minute, the Liverpool
Beatles Museum. You run it?
Yeah.
It was wrongs brainchild.
He had this idea, and he had this
collection, which we were all basically contributed to
over the years.
But he he felt the
right location
because it's not that we're not usually he
couldn't get a better location than if you
tried.
You know, basically facing the cabin, 200 yards
down from the cabin.
And it is, like, basically,
you know, let the world see the the
collection, you know, the the
the Beatles collection, and it is a fabulous
collection.
And there's over a 1,000 artifacts in there.
It keeps getting updated every couple of weeks.
So even if people have been and they
come back again and we hope to come
back many many more times. Answer the cats
about coffee pub sweets as well. Okay.
It won't be the same. There's always something
new in there, you know, so it's they're
not seeing the same thing.
Does he remember really going in there every
day? But it it keeps it fresh, keeps
it alive.
Yeah. I mean, it sounds like you have
created lots of reasons to go to Liverpool.
That's just 2 of them. Okay.
But you've got 3 now. 3. Yeah. At
the Casper coffee club street, you got the
Casper downstairs, You got the Living Blue Beetles
Museum. That's right. The best triangles. There you
go. Pete, you are wonderful. I really appreciate
your time and being on the show. This
is really an honor for me.
Oh, so
been a pleasure talking to you. Okay. And
just let me
shoot a fuck with someone. It's been like,
talking to someone over a cup of coffee.
So I really enjoyed it. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you. That's a huge compliment. Thank
you. And thank you for listening everybody.
Bye. See you soon. God bless you. See
you in a little bit.
Yes. 100%. Yes.
Have a great night.
Rate, review, and subscribe to Hey Human podcasts
wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks.
Bye.