One can make an argument that Liverpool’s rock and roll explosion began
with a show on May 3, 1960 and the only Beatle involved was Ringo.
Allan Williams, the owner of Liverpool’s Jacaranda Club, arranged a beat
show featuring Gene Vincent, an American rock and roll and rockabilly
musician. He had a 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps band,
"Be-Bop-a-Lula.”
The show was at the Liverpool Stadium, which was used for boxing matches
and was managed by Pete Best’s father. Pete would join the Beatles in August.
It was advertised as “the greatest beat show to be staged in Britain.”
On the bill with Vincent were Davy Jones, Nero and the Gladiators and
Lance Fortune. The bill also included some local beat acts – Cass and
his Cassanovas, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and Gerry and the
Pacemakers.
The Beatles were not considered good enough and were not invited to join
the show.
“The stadium was a strange place to play. The sound got lost,” said
Gerry and the Pacemakers drummer Freddie Mardsen.
“The Stadium show was a total madhouse,” said one of the performing musicians, Mick O’Toole.
“There were no marshals or stewards and no discipline amongst the
crowds. It was a very unsettled night. It was a difference in attitude.
If you went to the Empire, you behaved yourself but this was a boxing
stadium and it was a shambles.”
Many historians believe the Vincent concert signaled the beginning of
the rock and roll era in Liverpool.
Mark Lewisonh said this show “lit the fuse under Liverpool’s explosive
rock scene.”
Gene Vincent was the first inductee into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 1971, Vincent died at the age of 36 from a combination of a ruptured
ulcer, internal hemorrhage and heart failure, while visiting his father
in Saugus, California.
Below is 19-year-old Ringo playing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes at
this show. He would join the Beatles two and one half years later.
Thank you to Boris for this story and rare image of Ringo.
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