So I just watched the excellent Beatles Anthology series.
Wow, lots of stuff you never knew about them, I found it fascinating, YMMV.
Anyways, so I was feeling curious, and I started poking around for more little known stuff, and I came up with a few interesting tidbits.
As an example, here’s one I’d never ever heard before regarding the much disputed “Fifth Beatle” desgination.
Everyone knows, of course, about the sacking of original drummer Pete Best, and the departure of original bassist Stu Sutcliffe.
Also well-known is the 1964 replacement of the tonsillitis-stricken Ringo by Jimmy Nicol for tours of Europe and Australia.
Of course, the last claimant to the title could arguably be Billy Preston, who joined the band for the ill-fated sessions to Let It Be.
What I hadn’t known before, and I found fascinating, was the following.
After their disastrous visit to the Philippines and then (what would prove to be their final public) performance at Candlestick Park in SF, late August 1966, the four parted ways for a spell, each pursuing individual interests.
Apparently, at this time, George Harrison, increasingly attracted to Eastern music and disillusioned with the commercialization of the Beatles’ work, secretly quit the band.
Desperate for a replacement, the remaining three and their management considered countless candidates, and finally, with especially McCartney’s Irish-slanted preference, settled on a young unknown guitar slinger from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Within weeks of the new addition, Harrison, undergoing a change of heart, returned to the band and begged to to be re-admitted.
Of course, there was no question that he’d be allowed to re-join, and he promptly did so.
The young Irish lad, whose name has never been revealed, returned to his native Belfast and, crushed by the massive disappointment of the experience, took to drink and hard living and was never heard from again.
Only a single photograph remains of this rare Beatles lineup, click here to see it.
*Now, many people have questioned the veracity of this photo, but I and numerous other experts have examined it exhaustively, and have been unable to find even the faintest evidence of photoshopping or other image manipulation; as it stands, it is authoritatively considered to be genuine.