George Martin Offers Ex-Beatle Apology
Beatles producer George Martin has offered an apology to the group’s first drummer Pete Best for playing a role in having him replaced in 1962. Martin spoke to the group’s Across The Universe fan website (webweaverdesign.ca/beatles) and recalled his impressions of the group after their EMI audition on June 6th, 1962.
“After that first test, I decided that the drums, which are really the backbone of a good rock group, didn’t give the boys enough support. They needed a good solid beat and I said to (their manager) Brian (Epstein), ‘Look, it doesn’t matter what you do with the boys, but on record, nobody need know. I’m gonna use a hot drummer,’ and I used the guy who was the best session drummer of the period. Brian said, ‘Okay, fine.’ Now it was pretty tough for (Pete) and I felt guilty because I felt maybe, I was the catalyst that had changed his life, so I’m sorry about that, Pete.”
Pete Best was fired from the Beatles on August 16th, 1962, just prior to the group recording their debut single “Love Me Do” on September 4th, 1962.
Best, who says that he has had no substantial contact with any of the Beatles since the night before he was fired, says that Ringo Starr walked into a much cushier job than he did upon joining the Beatles: “You know, when you think about it, the first trip out to Hamburg, (Germany), we were playing six, seven hours a night. And I think actually, when (laughs) Ringo joined they were playing 20 minutes, half an hour sessions, or something like that. So, I did a lot of the spade work, put the long hours in and he was the one who picked up the glory.”
In 2005 Best released his Best Of The Beatles DVD. The documentary features Best’s first hand recollections of the Beatles’ formative days in Liverpool and Hamburg.
The Pete Best Band will kick off their next North American dates on May 8th in Burlington, Ontario at Club 54.