A last-minute audition brought in drummer Pete Best, and the five young men made their way to the seedy Reeperbahn district, where nightly performing allowed them to develop a distinct musical identity.

Some less-than-promising gigs around the UK were undertaken, but it was the opportunity to work in Hamburg that finally pushed the band's fortunes in a positive direction. Non-musician art student Stuart Sutcliffe was then suckered into acting as bassist, and short stints as The Beatals, The Silver Beetles and various other variations on that theme preceeded their final christening as the Beatles in 1960.

Eventually McCartney brought Harrison on board as well (despite some initial reluctance from Lennon), bringing the Quarrymen three-quarters of the way toward becoming The Beatles.Īfter some personnel problems in the Quarrymen line-up, the three performed for a while in a trio format as Johnny and The Moondogs, making their recording debut in 1958 with a version of Buddy Holly and the Crickets' tune That'll Be The Day and the McCartney original In Spite Of All The Danger. The two were mutually impressed by each other's musical skills, and a few days later Lennon invited McCartney to join the band as a guitarist. Not long afterwards, a mutual friend brought him to see John Lennon, who was performing the song Be Bop A Lula at the Woolton village fete with his band The Quarrymen. In his early teens, shortly after the premature death of his mother from breast cancer, McCartney's interest in music became more prominent and he began making his first attempts at songwriting it was during this time that he became friends with George Harrison, a schoolmate and fellow aspiring musician who shared the same bus route. One of the most widely-known performers and songwriters of the past four decades, Paul McCartney was born into the modest Liverpool household of James McCartney (a salesman/amateur jazz musician) and his wife Mary (who worked as a nurse and a midwife).

Paul McCartney by Barry Miles