Of all music groups, song writers and recording artists, the Beatles are easily the best known of all. Their impact was unprecedented. They reached the very top - and beyond, becoming more famous and influential than anyone in the music business dared dream. Yet their beginning was quite humble. The group was made up of four working-class lads from very modest households of an industrial town in postwar England. Their respective futures seemed to hold little promise of any kind. They were untrained, in music or anything else, yet they taught themselves a craft that allowed their collective talent to develop over seven long years, to finally emerge on a worldwide stage to universal acclaim.

All beginnings have a time and a place - for the Beatles it was the 6th of July, 1957. It was a warm, sunny Saturday in a suburb of Liverpool. Then and there, a 15 year old Paul McCartney met 16 year old John Lennon at a Woolton Village “Church Social”. John was performing there with his very amateur group, “The Quarry Men” (named after John’s high school, “Quarry Bank School”). John had a cheap guitar with two missing strings and had learned a few banjo chords from his mother. What impressed Paul at the time was John’s singing. Paul knew some real chords, and the words to the songs the Quarry Men were attempting to play. That impressed John, and Paul was invited to join the group.

Paul had already met George Harrison, who got on at the next stop of his school bus. George too had a cheap guitar and had taken a few lessons from a friend of his Dad’s. They shared a fascination for guitar (and rock ‘n’ roll), and Paul swapped his trumpet for one of his own - he realized he couldn't sing while playing the trumpet. They spent time together, working out a few chords from an old guitar manual. On joining the Quarry Men, Paul told John about George - “He’s a real good guitar player.” George, almost 15 years old, “auditioned” for the Quarry Men on the upper deck of a bus. He played one song, and the others agreed “you’ve done it! - you’re in!” George, however, felt The Quarry Men’s other members “didn’t seem to be doing anything,” and stipulated “Let’s get rid of them - then I’ll join.” And so it was...