A visual and aural journey through the formative years - the 1950s through June 1963.
This is how they became The Beatles!

-----

John Lennon (founder 1957) Paul McCartney (joined July 1957) George Harrison (joined February 1958) Ringo Starr (joined August 1962) * Pete Best (joined August 1960 fired August 1962) The primary mission of this site is to recollect, or regroup, the best and most complete examples of early photos of The Savage Young Beatles. Originally, the goal was to use only "performance" photos. However, it became evident that, in order to present an accurate representation of the times, it would be necessary to include some non-performance photos as well. But the non-performance photos have been kept to a minimum. In general, they are related to the venues in which The Beatles performed. A few feature relative geographical areas and locations. It is likely that additional non-performance photos will be added in the future but the focus will maintain the "performance" perspective. Many of these photos are very well known and have been seen throughout the past 40 years but it's certain that you will find a great many that you've never seen. In many cases, as previously seen, the familiar photos were cropped to varying degrees. In addition, many photos are very often mislabeled. Even by reliable sources. In an attempt to present the most complete photo, many of the photos presented here are a composite of two or more examples of a particular photo. Note, too, there are a handful of fake composites. These were done to create a type of panoramic view when possible. These composites are duly noted as to not mislead the viewer that a particular photo actually exists. ----------------------------------------------- - A speaker icon indicates audio (or a link to audio) is found on that page. - A camera icon indicates video is found on that page. Please download the files (right click, "save target as") and do not play them from the site. Help preserve my bandwidth. ---------------------------------------------- * Ringo was with The Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group from early 1957 - 1958. From 1958 - 1959 he played with The Darktown Skiffle Group. Finally, he joined Rory Storm And The Hurricanes from March 1959 - August 1962. In early 1962, he did a stint as one of Tony Sheridan's Beat Brothers at The Top Ten Club in Hamburg, Germany Photos of all the bands, except The Darktown Skiffle Group, are featured here. Stu Sutcliffe (joined January 1960 quit Summer 1961)

Enroute to Hamburg 16 August 1960 at the Arnhem War Memorial in Holland. (from left to right, Allan Williams, Allan's wife Beryl, Lord Woodbine, Stu Sutcliffe, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best) I suspect John Lennon took the photo. ---------------------------------------------------------- Contributions are greatly appreciated and duly credited. If you have a photo not featured here or a better or more complete copy of a photo that is here, please contact me. If you have a photo in less quality but is cropped more complete, this would be desired, too. Contact: Chazz Avery beatlesource@yahoo.com I would like to extend a great depth of gratitude to those of you who have contributed photos or information. Many, many thanks for all your time and effort. You all have been a great asset to the project. (in no particular order) Andrey, Matt from "Fabshutterbugs", Jay "Reed Pigman", Sean "O Boogie", Chip Madinger, Peter Hull, Tom "Seltaebjpgr8", David "cdharper2000", "Penny Pearson", Stacia "onosideboards"/"citizensagainst", Claudio Gioia, Jason Kruppa, Mark Costa, Jenni Carpenter, Diego Domato, Kevin Coffey, Jörgen Brandell, John Winn, Alan Humphreys, Eduardo Ribeiro, John McEwen, Jörg Pieper, IWAX, Thorsten Knublauch, Kevin Coffey For contributions above and beyond the call of duty: Mark Jones, Ariel Caceres, Ken Wood, Marcelo Ravelo, Trini Schultz, Beatle Dave, Jeff Gold A very special thanks to: Sam Leach, Bill Harry and Pete Best ----------------------------------------------------------- On a personal note, I would like to relate a short story. I live near Cleveland, Ohio, USA which, of course, is the home of The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Many Beatles artifacts currently reside there or have been exhibited there. Many of these artifacts date from this early era. Some of the early artifacts include John's leather jacket, early handwritten lyrics with other writings and drawings, Stu Sutcliffe's Hofner bass, George's first guitar and the Grundig recorder which recorded The Quarry Men on 6 July 1957 along with paper souvenirs from the Garden Fete. And I'm sure I've forgotten a few. When I first saw these items, I was in total awe. I still find it hard to imagine that there were those items right before my eyes. I'm sure those of you who have seen them must have felt the same. I've always had a certain affinity for this early era of Beatles' history but seeing these items in person really brought it home and strengthend my interest. So, to make a long story short, this website is the result of that increased interest.

---------------------------------------