Over the succeeding weeks, Martin had to
decide whether to sign the group.
Initially he'd began thinking in terms
of altering the structure to that of the more conventional line-up of
the time - a lead singer with a backing group in the style of bands
such as Cliff Richard & the Shadows. He was attempting to figure
out who should be the frontman - John or Paul, a case of Paul
McCartney & the Beatles or John Lennon & the Beatles.
Finally, he decided to leave them as
they were.
Having found he had nothing to lose by
signing the Beatles, Martin presented them with a contract that paid a
paltry royalty. Although their records were to make an immense fortune
for EMI in subsequent years, their royalty remained low until 1967
when they were offered 10 per cent of an album's wholesale price.
The original contract offered them one
penny in royalties per single, with no advance payment, and on
overseas sales they would only get half that.
A twelve-track album would be regarded
as six cuts. There were three one-year options with an increase of a
quarter of a penny (a farthing) at the end of the first year and an
increase of a halfpenny at the end of the second year.
When I received the telegram from
Epstein, I ran a front cover story, ironically, just featuring a
photograph of drummer Pete Best with the caption:
"Congratulations to Pete, Paul, John and George."
The reason for Best's prominence was
simply that he was the most popular member of the Beatles in Liverpool
and girls slept overnight in his garden just to be near him.
What I didn't know was that Pete's fate
had been cast.
Recording managers at that time often
preferred using session drummers in recording studios and George
Martin regularly booked various drummers such as Clem Cattini and Andy
White because they were familiar with recording studio techniques.
Martin had suggested that he'd like to
use a session drummer at their next session and this was used as an
excuse to get rid of Pete.
Brian Epstein didn't want to do it,
neither did John Lennon, but it was mainly George and Paul who pushed
for his expulsion.
According to Cilla Black, Johnny
Hutchinson of the Big Three was the first choice as the replacement.
Then the Beatles had second thoughts because of his reputation of
being a tough guy and they felt they needed a drummer with a more
subordinate personality and chose Ringo.
At the time Ringo was a member of Rory
Storm & the Hurricanes but was leaving them after accepting an
offer to join Kingsize Taylor & the Dominoes for £20 a week. The
Beatles offered him £25 - and the £5 extra a week clinched it for
him.
The Beatles asked Ringo to meet Epstein
at Liverpool's Blue Angel club and he recalled, "When I got there
I was introduced to Brian Epstein, who seemed a bit surprised at my
appearance. I wore a beard and had a grey streak in my hair. I thought
no more about it until the following Tuesday when I received a message
asking me to phone Brian at midnight. I did and he asked me if I would
like to join the Beatles."
Next page in this article
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
5
