Rod Davis of John Lennon's Quarrymen

[@jbfonfrias9133]

I will forever be grateful to The Quarrymen for allowing me to be one of those "guest bass players" when I met & joined them at the NJ Beatlefest in 2007, I alsi joined them for the Chicago-fest 5 months later, then had the honor & thrill of touring with them for 2 weeks the following year. I am still over the moon when I think of my time with these wonderful souls, & know they are my eternal friends. Great, great interview Tom. Long live Rod, Len, Colin & John Duff Lowe !

[@daviddorr402]

I wish I was a quarrying and could play a guitar and lived and grew up in Liverpool England.

[@alanwilkinson9487]

I met Rod Davies at beatle convention many years ago along with a few of the original quarry men..he is a very down to earth guy,and a true gentleman.loved this interview, from a true beatle fan..

[@owensclock]

Rod Davis' memories of events leading up to and immediately after July 6, 1957, the day John Lennon met Paul McCartney, puts a lot of things into perspective and explains all the changes the line up of Quarrymen went through shortly after the St. Peter's fete gig. Thanks Tom for giving Mr. Davis a chance to tell his story. EXCELLENT interview!

[@davidheafield1436]

A few years ago I found a Decca 45 by the “Trad Grads” of which Rod had been a member. The 45 was in a U.K. Decca “house sleeve” and had been neatly signed in biro by all the members except Rod. So after doing a little bit of detective work I found an email address that might or might not have been him so I sent off an inquiring email. Sure enough within a few days I received a reply to the affirmative that he was indeed the Rod Davis I was looking for and that he would be happy for me to send him the 45 and he would add his signature to the rest. Within a week I had had it back and was pleased to see he had taken the time to find a suitable pen ink to match the 1960’s signatures , a very nice gentleman and happy to chat , ....if your reading this Rod , thanks mate!

[@geraldjensen9399]

I visited Liverpool in 2015, stayed several nights at a friend's house in Woolton. It's a nice little "town," pie shops, had a look around the Cemetery behind the Church, thought the Quarrymen had played at the side of the Church- would have been across the street at the Church Hall irt seems. Not far away isMendips, John's Aunt Mimi house, rang the doorbell, a little man dressedi a nehru suit came out and yelled at us- he was in the middle of a tour- All You Need is Love and a few quid from tourists. Strawberry Fields is very close by. All in all Liverpool is a friendly place, not enormous, many Pubs and sights to see.

[@tyronewhitehead3123]

Seen the Quarry men many times a few years ago and they are are fabulous group I’m so pleased there still going as they are very important in history me and my partner spoke to them lovely musicians I get goose bumps listening to them a fab group. It’s a sweet interview both men clearly delving in to their rich history thanks for this very enjoyable love the conversation its so easy going we went to their 60th anniversary a fantastic day and evening respect to this group 🙏

[@jamesbond4633]

That was interesting. Nice to hear from people unadulterated by the fame of the Beatles and giving their honest memories of their experiences. You can just imagine that time period he describes and the innocence of it. The Village. Also how the stars really lined up for the Beatles to ultimately all come together. Never knew about George being in another band and then the story about Pete Best and his mom. I knew they had played at the Casbah but it was out of necessity for the opening. Fascinating stuff. And of course the JFK reference!!!

[@88SPIKE]

Great interview, I played guitar with JL at Pete Shottons house (Eric Griffiths was there too) before the Quarrymen were formed. Rod and I are still in touch via Xmas cards

[@mrblue99999]

A great interview. I have never communicated with anyone who knew John Lennon. What were your impressions?

[@angelicagonzalez151]

That is wonderful

[@DrWrapperband]

Thanks - very great interview.

[@duncanmckeown1292]

Fascinating stuff! I went through Liverpool on my way to Canada in 1956 with my parents (at age 6!) Who knows, I might have run into John...or more likely he would have run into me? A lifelong Beatles fan in any case!

[@angelicagonzalez151]

True at that time john stil a schoolboy

[@dogphlap6749]

I believe Mr Davis, he is very firm about what he actually witnessed and what he learned from other sources subsequent to the events he speaks of. I've heard Paul McCartney in an interview also say the world is full of guitars for right handed players so almost out of necessity he taught himself to play a right handed guitar (perhaps not well but enough to get by) for those occasions when his left hand guitar was not around. A really good video Mr Tom Meros.

[@berryj.greene7090]

I had a left handed friend with whom I used to busk around with at the same 1950's period and he played a normally strung guitar upside down! By which I mean he used his weakest right hand to fret the strings - just the same as we "normal" blokes do! My word was he sensitive about it too. However, his picking was just like Elizabeth Cotton who was also a leftie. I'm not sure - we can look it up - but I think she did the same thing and it gives you a wonderful picking sequence just as her Freight Train will prove. So are you ready to check this out? Let's see if I can embed the link here without blowing the fuse eh! kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4auaZijnryUmLc I'll bet you a dollar that is what Paul McCartney did that day just as Rod says. What he says about the nut slots is also true and the Bridge slots too need to be modified. Some machine heads were not always drilled with the same size hole back then either. So they might need drilling or swapping around. Back in those days in England I doubt there was an option on buying a left handed guitar. You would have to modify it yourself. Naw! - Rod's bound to be right. Rgds BjG

[@dolphin1017]

Another wonderful video. Thanks Tom.

[@durandaldevil]

Great interview. Cheers!

[@monmixer]

That's great Tom. I just watched a video of these guys playing at Strawberry Fields Park live this year. 2021. Glad to see they are still loving music and doing well. That video led me here by algorithm.

[@mongrelhead1]

Many thanks to Rod Davis for clearing up much, dispelling rumors, and clarifying a lot of points. His memories correspond quite a bit to Mark Lewisohn's book Tune In. T'was quite interesting! Thanks!

[@sallyevans2268]

Good to know! I’m reading Tune In right now.

[@stephenellis2866]

Lonnie Donegan was the originator of Skiffle Rock Island Line, him and nobody else started the craze

[@hyzercreek]

Awesome. I never knew the Quarrymen broke up and George got them back together for the Casbah gigs. I'm sure there is more to it, but that sounds like the Quarrymen weren't doing much before the Casbah or before Hamburg.

[@niguel4438]

Fascinating and important video. Thanks.

[@michaelohare3157]

Woolton is in Liverpool, he means few miles out of Liverpool city centre. 👍

[@fotioskatsoulis99]

Very interesting that the quarrymen members, who didn’t become Beatles,took music seriously, and reformed the old school band, which was unknown, locally Liverpool. Once Beatles established their fame, that’s when the quarrymen men had been mentioned. Embryonic Beatles

[@stormhawk3319]

Pete Shotton washboard player left The Quarrymen in August, Rod Davis the band member Paul McCartney replaced in September 1957, Eric Griffiths got replaced by George in February 1958 and not long after, tea chest bass player Len Garry got struck down with illness ending his association with the band and lastly drummer Colin Hanton quit on New Year’s Day 1959 leaving just John, Paul & George.

[@alanwann9318]

This is hard work.let me comment England was so deprived after the war you could not get the things Americans had.I was 7 yrs old 1957 when we got our first t.v. and I was 22 when I got a telephone. My first car 27.

[@ericlees7518]

me too i was just 9 we got our first tv a bush model in 1955 just in time for the switch over to itv from the bbc there was a switch on the side of the set marked band 1 and band 2 one day we could switch it over and received itv and all the commercial adverts like pepsodent doube diamond esso blue babycham venos gibbs sr lol mmmmmmmmmm that we could

[@berryj.greene7090]

Yup That's about the size of it!

[@generoprado9020]

C CDMX sorry no inglés pensé q' ya no estaría para ver estos orígenes de niño, joven, y abuelo me acia está pregunta de dónde y como iniciaron gracias Google y atodos los actores y contribuyentes por este regalo

[@Gary.S]

Brilliant very good ❤

[@generoprado9020]

De CDMX. Saludos es un verdadero honor alcanzar ver y oír los orígenes de tan célebres músicos después de los clásicos ya era hora gracias q' no quedo Enel arcano

[@williamblair9597]

Great insight and perspective about a very early unknown period of history in the explosion which occurred 4-5 years later.

[@favouritemoon4133]

Either this video was uploaded and viewed many times elsewhere on YT, or it is criminally under viewed here. Fascinating stuff, and one of the reasons why is because Rod doesn't over-egg anything at all. I do wish that the interviewer had ascertained * before* this interview that Rod didn't know Paul McCartney at all during the Quarrymen years, and therefore focussed more on asking questions about Rod's memories of John Lennon, but that's a minor quibble. Even the mention of The Spinners awakened some dormant memories of them, as my parents loved them. Great stuff.

[@markfcoble]

Thanks!

[@stevescott8060]

Interesting, They all listened to American Music, learned to play it with their own improvements, then sold it back to us, and We Bought It. And still do Now to listen to The Beatles.

[@generoprado9020]

CDMX tal vez un día en la vida en CDMX algún sobreviviente de esos inicios personalmente nos relaten sus vivencias E spero q' si

[@generoprado9020]

CDMX ha mi me facina lo q' el misterioso hombrecillo les decía del nombre y el énfasis de la doble e beatles y creo q' hay fotos de hobrecillo

[@michaeldunne3379]

Good video

[@sandraford4235]

Most of us had gas light ,I’m a few years younger and just about remember gas light ,my Dad put electric in ,but a few neighbors still had gas light ,

[@allenf.5907]

Like the Maggie May - where John pulled it from.

[@allenf.5907]

And watching this again - GREAT recollection of the Quarrymen. VERY famous historical day - when John met Paul. July 6th, 1957.

[@steg_of_neth.2877]

John used to sing to baby Sean 'Maggie May.'

[@paulbadoo9326]

John didn't even know how to play Twenty flight rock. Paul showed him that day.

[@renman16291]

The U.S. was "musically doing nothing"? I never heard Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, even Jerry Lee Lewis here in the U.S. Radio was hardly playing it. When the Beats covered those guys, that's when we paid more attention. The Beats were into it more than the U.S. was. The U.S. produced amazing rock n roll under our noses. The U.K. brought it back to us. 👍💓🌎

[@berryj.greene7090]

Yeah its odd but true. Many of your R&R guys came over here. There's no way that would have happened if they had a big home calling for their product. Elvis spearheaded it all for us over here but never came to perform. Then we started to "cover" your stuff and produced some real rubbish on the way. The Beatles though did it proud and then it was discovered they had written all these tunes of their own. That's what made them here. Those wonderful songs. Then there was their Liverpool cheek of course. So endearing - so fresh at the time that they didn't take themselves so seriously yet were making a serious endeavour. So few had that rapport back then. Their musicianship was more than adequate too. They showed the way to so many.

[@williamjordan5554]

That nun's song was number 1 on the chart listing best sellers, not just rock best sellers.

[@freedommatters3176]

I thought Nuns were silent

[@Fritha71]

He must be kicking himself for going home for dinner while history took place at the Church Hall LOL Little did he know that bearing witness to the meeting of John&Paul would have become so important decades down the line...

[@larrywax3638]

Good stuff

[@tomdegan6924]

Quite interesting.

[@oojudg3oo]

Why not McCartney bringing his own guitar. He could have taken the nut off and turned it around? Then restrung it upside down, or for lefthanded weeks before that day he met Lennon. Sometimes the nut isn't glued on. And Paul could have turned it around..and beveled it with a file or something first. St. Louis, Mo.

[@yensilluap]

Were you joking? I’ve only know nuts to be glued - it’s the bridge that is sometimes floating. I heard Paul say in an interview once that he played it upside down - which makes sense for a left handed player using a right handed guitar.

[@ringokidd387]

Right On! Man very likely.....

[@PeterSmith185]

0% chance of that happening.

[@aicram62]

Maybe I get why the Beatles weren't racist. We African Americans had "skiffle" parties as well.