Rory Storm And The Hurricanes
circa 1960

As mentioned previously, information about Rory Storm And The Hurricanes (and subsequently Ringo) is not as well documented as The Beatles. Here are a few photos that I have no clue when and often where they are from.

As typical for 1960 photos of this band, due to a beardless Ringo, it is assumed these photos are from 1960.

Ringo's drums:
In "Anthology", Ringo recalls getting his first good drum kit (Ajax) in the Summer of 1958. According to Andy Babiuk, this is the set seen here in May 1960. Babiuk further states that, by July 1960, Ringo had purchased the Premier set that he would still be using when he joined The Beatles. Reports also state that he bought the Premier kit in Germany which would make it later in the year.

The logo:
In a 1996 interview with Babiuk, Johnny "Guitar" of The Huricanes states that Ringo initially had "RS" [in a large star] printed on the bass drum head and later, "when he became more well known", he had "Ringo Starr" printed on it.

In "Antholgy" Ringo describes the full name logo with the implication that it was around the time they went to Butlins in 1960. Obvioulsy, that is not accurate. Evidently the full name logo came some time in late 1961. The earliest photographic evidence fo the full name logo is early 1962 when he was backing Tony Sheridan in Hamburg. Perhaps Ringo was thinking of his third season in Butlins in 1962. Once joining The Beatles, in August 1962, Ringo continued to use the "full name" logo until January 1963. At that time, the first Beatles' "bug" logo was designed.

On this page, any of the drums Ringo is seen playing (which might help date these photos) look neither like the Ajax or Premier sets (although better quality photos might reveal otherwise). The drums in the Cavern photo are certainly not Ringo's and actually look like Pete Best's drums.

Another clue to narrow the date of these photos might be Ty O'Brien's guitars. It appears as though, some time before The Hurricanes played Butlins in the summer of 1960, Ty, who had been playing a Hofner Club 50 guitar, switched to a Fender Stratocaster.

------

Business card

An early performance in 1960 at The Iron Door Club.

This looks like The Jive Hive. It would appear that this and the photo
to the right are the same date and venue.

This is obviously The Cavern and don't those look like Pete Best's drums?

I have no clue where this could be.

I've seen implications that this is Butlins in the summer of 1960 but
I can't confirm that so, I've placed it on this page.

The poster in the back left leads me to believe this is St. Luke' Hall.

Regrettably, Ringo is not seen in this photo.

Perhaps this is 1961. Lu Walter's outfit was typical of 1961.

The photo to the right is quite unusual and a bit of a mystery. According to an article by musician Iain Hines, which accompanied the photo in a January 1965 issue of 16 Magazine, this photo was taken the night Paul and Pete were arrested by the Hamburg police for the infamous fire incident. Hines claims this band was hastely thrown together to fill The Beatles' spot.

Pictured left to right: Iain Hines, Colin Mealander, Rory Storm,
Tony Cavanagh and Tony Sheridan.

But what about that drum head? The drums look similar to Ringo's kit but that can't be determined with certainty. Pete has stated that his drums were left behind in Hamburg but these are not his drums.

Pete tells a story of having "Beatles" on his drum head for a short time.
However, he states that it was white letters on a bright orange background. That description doesn't fit the drum here. As a point of note, he also states that some photos of the "Beatles" drum head exist but none seem to have surfaced.

My theory... If Hines' description of this session is correct, perhaps The Beatles' name was written as a joke. This would have been the end of The Beatles' first tenure in Hamburg. Surely, patrons would know this is not The Beatles.