Upon their return to England, Stuart stayed in Hamburg with his German girlfriend, Astrid. Stu never really caught on to being a musician and went back to being an artist. Now the Beatles had three guitarists, and no bass player. One of them had to switch to bass, and John and George wouldn’t hear of it. It was Paul who finally agreed to do it - only to become one of the best of all time. Back in Liverpool, in black leather and with strange new haircuts, the “Germans”, as some thought they were, looked and sounded very different from the tame groups they had originally left behind. Their crowd of dedicated followers grew, and they became a staple group at a former Liverpool jazz club, "The Cavern".

Another break for the Beatles came when Brian Epstein, a local businessman with theatrical training caught wind of the budding Beatle “phenomenon”. He managed his father’s record store, where the Beatles themselves bought records. On a Saturday in October of ‘61, he was asked by a boy for a record by the group. The following Monday two girls asked for the same. Brian then vaguely remembered having seen the group’s oddly spelled name on a poster advertising a dance. He asked a girl he knew about them - “The Beatles? They’re the greatest! They’re at the Cavern this week...” - his office was only 200 yards from The Cavern. He checked out one of their performances and was immediately impressed by them, their sound and their following. He offered to manage them and the lads agreed, sensing that a proper manager could do them a lot of good - it lent them an air of professionalism. Brian cleaned up their act, got them better jobs (for 25% of their earnings), and most importantly, set out to land them a record contract - a task that proved nearly impossible! John recalled “He would go down on his own, on the train, to London with his tape and he’d come back with a blank face and we’d know we’d bombed out again. Brian used to come back from London and he couldn’t face us because he’d been down about twenty times. He’d come back to say. ‘well I’m afraid they didn’t accept it again’”. By the end of ‘61, he’d finally got them an audition with a record company, which they failed - “Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein”. John, looked upon as the leader of the group, was crushed. He thought that was the end. But Brian never gave up. He really believed in them. His convictions about them surpassed their own, except perhaps for George, who always thought they’d make it somehow. As he tells it, “Brian put in a lot of time getting us off the ground. he believed in us from the start”.