Mona Best
Encyclopedia
Mona "Mo" Best was born in India
and is best known as the mother of Pete Best
(b. 24 November 1941), who was an early member of The Beatles
. Mona also had two other sons, Rory (born 1945) and Vincent "Roag" Best (born 1962). It was later confirmed that Roag's father was The Beatles' associate Neil Aspinall
, although he was not registered as the father on Roag's birth certificate.
After moving to Liverpool
from India, the Best family claim that Mona pawned all of her jewellery in 1954, and used the money to place a 33–1 bet
on a horse named "Never Say Die", and used her winnings to buy a house in 1957. Mona later opened The Casbah Coffee Club
in the cellar of the house as a venue for Rock 'n' Roll
music. It was planned as a members-only club for her sons and their friends. The club was often referred to as The Casbah Club, or The Casbah.
The Quarrymen
—John Lennon
, Paul McCartney
, George Harrison
and Ken Brown
—frequently played at The Casbah instead of the The Cavern Club
, which had a jazz-only policy at that time. The Casbah Club cellar—with its original decoration—still exists. In 2006, the property was accorded a Grade II Heritage listing. Mona died in 1988, after a heart attack following a long illness.
, India, to Thomas (an Irish major) and Mary Shaw. She was the youngest of four children: Brian, Patrick and Aileen. Her first son, Randolph Peter (Pete Best), was born on 24 November 1941—his biological father was marine engineer Donald Peter Scanland, who subsequently died during World War II. Mona was training with the Red Cross when she met Johnny Best, who came from a family of sports promoters in Liverpool that once owned and ran the Liverpool Stadium
. At the time of their meeting, Best was a commissioned officer
serving as a Physical Training Instructor
in India, and was the British Army's middleweight boxing champion. After their marriage on 7 March 1944, at St. Thomas's Cathedral, Bombay, the Bests had one child: Rory Best (b. January 1945). In late 1945, the family sailed for four weeks to Liverpool on the Georgic, which was the last troop ship to leave India, carrying single and married ranks who had previously been a part of General Sir William Slim
's forces in southeast Asia. The ship docked in Liverpool on 25 December 1945.
, which was called Ellerslie, but Mona fell out with John Best's sister, Edna, who resented her brother's choice of wife. The family then moved to a small flat on Cases Street, Liverpool (above Ma Edgerton's public house) but Mona was always looking for a large house—as she had been used to in India—instead of a smaller semi-detached
house, which were prevalent in the area. After moving to a three-bedroom house in Princess Drive, Mona persuaded her parents, Thomas and Mary Shaw, to leave India and live with them in Liverpool.
After moving to 17 Queenscourt Road in 1948—where the Bests lived for nine years—Rory saw a large Victorian house for sale at 8 Hayman's Green in 1954, and told his mother about it. The Best family claim that Mona then pawned all her jewellery and placed a bet on a horse that was ridden by Lester Piggott
in the 1954 Epsom Derby
, called "Never Say Die", which won at 33–1, and used her winnings to buy the house in 1957. Note: to place the bet, Mona would have had to travel more than 220 miles from Liverpool to Epsom
(as bets were only allowed at race tracks at the time) or place the bet with an illegal bookmaker
in Liverpool. 8 Hayman's Green had previously been owned by the West Derby Conservative Club
, and was unlike many other family houses in Liverpool, as the house (built around 1860) was set back from the road, had 15 bedrooms and an acre
of land. All the rooms were painted dark green or brown, and the garden was totally overgrown. Mona decorated the living room in an Oriental style, which reflected her own upbringing in India. She had previously tried to interest her husband in other houses, including a Formby
lighthouse, a windmill in St. Helens
and a circular house in Southport
, which Best disliked and rejected.
During 1961–1962, Neil Aspinall became good friends with Pete and subsequently rented a room in the Bests' home. Aspinall became romantically involved with Mona, who was 17 years his senior. During this period, Aspinall fathered a child by Mona: Vincent "Roag" Best. Roag was born in late July 1962, and just three weeks later, on 16 August 1962, the Beatles dismissed Pete. Roag's birth certificate was registered on 31 August 1962, stating his name to be Vincent Rogue [sic] Best, and his father as being John Best. Mona and Best had separated in the late 1950s or early 1960s.
Mona came up with the idea of the club after watching a TV report about The 2i's Coffee Bar in London
's Soho
where several singers had been discovered. She decided to open The Casbah Coffee Club—which was located in her cellar—on 29 August 1959, for young people to meet and listen to the popular music of the day. Mona charged half a crown annually for membership—to "keep out the rough elements"—and served soft drinks, snacks, cakes, and coffee from an espresso machine
, which no other club had at that time. The popular records of the day were played on a small Dansette
record player, which amplified them through a speaker of 3 inches (76.2 mm).
Mona had booked the Les Stewart Quartet
to play the opening night with Harrison on guitar, but they cancelled the booking after Stewart and Brown had a quarrel. Stewart was angry that Brown had missed a rehearsal, because Brown was helping Mona to decorate the club. As 300 membership cards had already been sold, Harrison said that he had two friends in a band called The Quarrymen who would play instead. Lennon, McCartney, Stuart Sutcliffe
and Harrison went to the club to arrange the booking, to which Mona agreed, but said she needed to finish painting the club first. All four took up brushes and helped Mona to finish painting the walls with spiders, dragons, rainbows, stars, and a beetle, but as Lennon was short-sighted, he mistook gloss
for emulsion
paint, which took a long time to dry in the dark, damp cellar. Cynthia Powell
, later the wife of Lennon, painted a silhouette of him on the wall, which is also still there.
The Quarrymen played a series of seven Saturday night concerts in The Casbah for 15 shillings each, starting on 29 August to October 1959, featuring Brown, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, but without a drummer, or a PA
system. The opening night concert was attended by about 300 local teenagers, but as the cellar had no air-conditioning, and people were dancing, the temperature rose until it became hard to breathe. As there was no amplification, Lennon later persuaded Mona to hire a young amateur guitar player called Harry to play a short set before The Quarrymen, but this was only so they could use his 40-Watt amplifier
. After the success of the first night, Mona gave The Quarrymen a residency, and paid the whole group £3 a night. Every Saturday thereafter, queues lengthened onto the street, which was financially good for Mona, as she charged one shilling admission on top of the annual membership fee.
Pete was studying at the Collegiate Grammar School when he decided he wanted to be in a music group, so Mona bought him a drum kit from Blackler's music store and Best formed his own band; The Black Jacks. Chas Newby joined the group, as did Ken Brown, but only after he had left The Quarrymen. The reason for Brown's exit from the group was that he turned up on the seventh Saturday night of The Quarrymen residency at The Casbah with the flu
, so Mona ordered him upstairs to the Best's living room to rest. This caused a massive quarrel with the rest of the group when Mona came to pay them, as they wanted Brown's money to be shared amongst the three of them, as Brown had not played. Mona refused, so The Quarrymen angrily cancelled their residency and stormed out. Colin Manley from The Remo Four was also given a booking to play in the club, which was the only venue that young amateur bands could play at the time. Other groups like The Searchers
and Gerry & The Pacemakers
later played in the club. The Black Jacks became the resident group at The Casbah, although The Quarrymen occasionally played there again and often visited. It was in The Casbah Club that Lennon and McCartney convinced Sutcliffe to buy a Hofner
President bass guitar and join The Quarrymen.
Even though the membership list later spiralled to over a thousand, Mona closed the club on 24 June 1962, with The Beatles as the last group to perform. In 2006, the Best's ex-coal cellar was given a "Grade II listed building status", after being recommended by English Heritage
. It has now been opened as a tourist attraction in Liverpool, along with McCartney and Lennon's previous homes.
When Pete became a member of The Beatles, Mona repeatedly tried to get the group a lunchtime residency in The Cavern Club by talking to the owner, Ray McFall, but was turned down, as The Cavern had a jazz-only policy at the time. Brian Epstein
later wanted to manage the group, and Mona was asked for her advice, and although she had her own plans for the group, she concluded that Epstein would be good for them over time. After The Beatles signed a management contract with Epstein, Mona did not relinquish her control over them, as they had been using her telephone to call agents, and frequently slept over in her living room between concerts. She constantly harassed Epstein about the quality of their bookings, and his management of them, which led to Epstein never referring to her by name, but always calling her "that woman". One musician commented that if Mona said it was a Sunday when it was Tuesday, one would be forced to agree with her.
After Best, McCartney and Harrison were deported
from Hamburg in November 1960, Mona made numerous phone calls to Hamburg to recover the group's equipment, which she eventually managed to do. Mona wrote to Granada Television
in 1961, in an attempt to get the group a television appearance on the programme called "People And Places", but was sent a letter telling her that they would contact her in the future. After her son had been dismissed from The Beatles on 16 August 1962, Mona was later quoted by biographer Hunter Davies
as saying:
cover, Lennon asked Mona if he could borrow the war medals her father had been given in India to wear for the photo session. Although still upset at the way her son was dismissed from The Beatles, Mona agreed, and the medals were then returned, along with a Cash Box
trophy that is in the letter 'L' of THE BEATLES flower-sign on the cover. Mona never opened another club, or engaged in another business venture, although she did have paying guests at her house, which she shared with her bed-ridden mother and her sons after she and Best parted. Mona died of a heart attack 9 September 1988, after a long illness.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and is best known as the mother of Pete Best
Pete Best
Pete Best is a British musician, best known as the original drummer in The Beatles. He was born in the city of Madras, British India...
(b. 24 November 1941), who was an early member of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
. Mona also had two other sons, Rory (born 1945) and Vincent "Roag" Best (born 1962). It was later confirmed that Roag's father was The Beatles' associate Neil Aspinall
Neil Aspinall
Neil Stanley Aspinall was a British music industry executive. A school friend of Paul McCartney and George Harrison, he went on to head The Beatles' company Apple Corps....
, although he was not registered as the father on Roag's birth certificate.
After moving to Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
from India, the Best family claim that Mona pawned all of her jewellery in 1954, and used the money to place a 33–1 bet
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
on a horse named "Never Say Die", and used her winnings to buy a house in 1957. Mona later opened The Casbah Coffee Club
The Casbah Coffee Club
The Casbah Coffee Club was a rock and roll music venue in West Derby, Liverpool, started by Mona Best in 1959 in the cellar of the family home. The Casbah, as it became widely known, was planned as a members-only club for Best's sons Pete, his younger brother, Rory, and their friends...
in the cellar of the house as a venue for Rock 'n' Roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
music. It was planned as a members-only club for her sons and their friends. The club was often referred to as The Casbah Club, or The Casbah.
The Quarrymen
The Quarrymen
The Quarrymen are a British skiffle and rock and roll group, initially formed in Liverpool in 1956, that eventually evolved into The Beatles in 1960...
—John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
and Ken Brown
Ken Brown (guitarist)
Ken Brown was a British guitarist with The Quarrymen, a precursor to The Beatles.Brown was born in Enfield, Middlesex in 1940, but moved with his family to Liverpool the following year....
—frequently played at The Casbah instead of the The Cavern Club
The Cavern Club
The Cavern Club is a rock and roll club in Liverpool, England. Opened on Wednesday 16 January 1957, the club had their first performance by The Beatles on 9 February 1961, and where Brian Epstein first saw The Beatles performing on 9 November 1961....
, which had a jazz-only policy at that time. The Casbah Club cellar—with its original decoration—still exists. In 2006, the property was accorded a Grade II Heritage listing. Mona died in 1988, after a heart attack following a long illness.
India
Alice Mona Shaw was born on 3 January 1924, in DelhiDelhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, India, to Thomas (an Irish major) and Mary Shaw. She was the youngest of four children: Brian, Patrick and Aileen. Her first son, Randolph Peter (Pete Best), was born on 24 November 1941—his biological father was marine engineer Donald Peter Scanland, who subsequently died during World War II. Mona was training with the Red Cross when she met Johnny Best, who came from a family of sports promoters in Liverpool that once owned and ran the Liverpool Stadium
Liverpool Stadium
Liverpool Stadium was a stadium in Liverpool, England. It hosted many different events including boxing, wrestling, concerts, and political hustings.-External links:**-Bibliography:*Curley, Mallory...
. At the time of their meeting, Best was a commissioned officer
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
serving as a Physical Training Instructor
Physical Training Instructor
Physical Training Instructor is a term used primarily in the British Armed Forces and British police, as well as some other Commonwealth countries, for an instructor in physical fitness.-United Kingdom:...
in India, and was the British Army's middleweight boxing champion. After their marriage on 7 March 1944, at St. Thomas's Cathedral, Bombay, the Bests had one child: Rory Best (b. January 1945). In late 1945, the family sailed for four weeks to Liverpool on the Georgic, which was the last troop ship to leave India, carrying single and married ranks who had previously been a part of General Sir William Slim
William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim
Field Marshal William Joseph "Bill"'Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, KG, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DSO, MC, KStJ was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia....
's forces in southeast Asia. The ship docked in Liverpool on 25 December 1945.
Liverpool
Being a part of Best's family meant Mona was accorded respect on Merseyside, which included meeting well-known sports personalities of the time and receiving preferential treatment when booking a table in a restaurant, or a seat in the theatre. The Bests lived for a short time at the Best family's large home in West DerbyWest Derby
West Derby is a suburb in the north of Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is also a Liverpool City Council ward. At the 2001 Census, the population of the ward was 14,801 .-History:...
, which was called Ellerslie, but Mona fell out with John Best's sister, Edna, who resented her brother's choice of wife. The family then moved to a small flat on Cases Street, Liverpool (above Ma Edgerton's public house) but Mona was always looking for a large house—as she had been used to in India—instead of a smaller semi-detached
Semi-detached
Semi-detached housing consists of pairs of houses built side by side as units sharing a party wall and usually in such a way that each house's layout is a mirror image of its twin...
house, which were prevalent in the area. After moving to a three-bedroom house in Princess Drive, Mona persuaded her parents, Thomas and Mary Shaw, to leave India and live with them in Liverpool.
After moving to 17 Queenscourt Road in 1948—where the Bests lived for nine years—Rory saw a large Victorian house for sale at 8 Hayman's Green in 1954, and told his mother about it. The Best family claim that Mona then pawned all her jewellery and placed a bet on a horse that was ridden by Lester Piggott
Lester Piggott
Lester Keith Piggott is a retired English professional jockey, popularly known as "The Long Fellow". With 4,493 career wins, including nine Epsom Derby victories, he is one of the most well-known English flat racing jockeys of all time....
in the 1954 Epsom Derby
Epsom Derby
The Derby Stakes, popularly known as The Derby, internationally as the Epsom Derby, and under its present sponsor as the Investec Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies...
, called "Never Say Die", which won at 33–1, and used her winnings to buy the house in 1957. Note: to place the bet, Mona would have had to travel more than 220 miles from Liverpool to Epsom
Epsom
Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England. Small parts of Epsom are in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead. The town is located south-south-west of Charing Cross, within the Greater London Urban Area. The town lies on the chalk downland of Epsom Downs.-History:Epsom lies...
(as bets were only allowed at race tracks at the time) or place the bet with an illegal bookmaker
Bookmaker
A bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...
in Liverpool. 8 Hayman's Green had previously been owned by the West Derby Conservative Club
Association of Conservative Clubs
The Association of Conservative Clubs is an organisation associated with theConservative Party in the United Kingdom. It represents and provides support to the largest association of political clubs in the country estimated at 1,100....
, and was unlike many other family houses in Liverpool, as the house (built around 1860) was set back from the road, had 15 bedrooms and an acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
of land. All the rooms were painted dark green or brown, and the garden was totally overgrown. Mona decorated the living room in an Oriental style, which reflected her own upbringing in India. She had previously tried to interest her husband in other houses, including a Formby
Formby
Formby is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It has a population of approximately 25,000....
lighthouse, a windmill in St. Helens
St Helens, Merseyside
St Helens is a large town in Merseyside, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens with a population of just over 100,000, part of an urban area with a total population of 176,843 at the time of the 2001 Census...
and a circular house in Southport
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
, which Best disliked and rejected.
During 1961–1962, Neil Aspinall became good friends with Pete and subsequently rented a room in the Bests' home. Aspinall became romantically involved with Mona, who was 17 years his senior. During this period, Aspinall fathered a child by Mona: Vincent "Roag" Best. Roag was born in late July 1962, and just three weeks later, on 16 August 1962, the Beatles dismissed Pete. Roag's birth certificate was registered on 31 August 1962, stating his name to be Vincent Rogue [sic] Best, and his father as being John Best. Mona and Best had separated in the late 1950s or early 1960s.
The Casbah Coffee Club
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
where several singers had been discovered. She decided to open The Casbah Coffee Club—which was located in her cellar—on 29 August 1959, for young people to meet and listen to the popular music of the day. Mona charged half a crown annually for membership—to "keep out the rough elements"—and served soft drinks, snacks, cakes, and coffee from an espresso machine
Espresso machine
An espresso machine is used to produce the traditional Italian coffee beverage called espresso.-History:The first machine for making espresso was built and patented by Angelo Moriondo of Turin, Italy, who demonstrated a working example at the Turin General Exposition of 1884. He was granted patent no...
, which no other club had at that time. The popular records of the day were played on a small Dansette
Dansette
Dansette was a British manufacturer of portable mono record players with a built-in speaker. Some models also had a BSR autochanger allowing several records to be loaded at once, and played in succession. It was first manufactured in 1952 and at least one million were sold in the 1950s and...
record player, which amplified them through a speaker of 3 inches (76.2 mm).
Mona had booked the Les Stewart Quartet
The Quarrymen
The Quarrymen are a British skiffle and rock and roll group, initially formed in Liverpool in 1956, that eventually evolved into The Beatles in 1960...
to play the opening night with Harrison on guitar, but they cancelled the booking after Stewart and Brown had a quarrel. Stewart was angry that Brown had missed a rehearsal, because Brown was helping Mona to decorate the club. As 300 membership cards had already been sold, Harrison said that he had two friends in a band called The Quarrymen who would play instead. Lennon, McCartney, Stuart Sutcliffe
Stuart Sutcliffe
Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe was a Scottish artist and musician, best known as the original bass player of The Beatles. Sutcliffe left the band to pursue a career as an artist, having previously attended the Liverpool College of Art...
and Harrison went to the club to arrange the booking, to which Mona agreed, but said she needed to finish painting the club first. All four took up brushes and helped Mona to finish painting the walls with spiders, dragons, rainbows, stars, and a beetle, but as Lennon was short-sighted, he mistook gloss
Gloss (paint)
Paint and other finishes come in a variety of finish gloss levels, which correspond to different levels of specular reflection.Some common names for levels of gloss include: flat, matte, eggshell, satin, silk, semi-gloss, high gloss. These terms are not standardized, and not all manufacturers use...
for emulsion
Paint
Paint is any liquid, liquefiable, or mastic composition which after application to a substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film. One may also consider the digital mimicry thereof...
paint, which took a long time to dry in the dark, damp cellar. Cynthia Powell
Cynthia Lennon
Cynthia Lillian Lennon is the former wife of musician John Lennon, and mother of Julian Lennon. She grew up in the middle-class section of Hoylake, on the Wirral Peninsula in North West England. At the age of twelve, she was accepted into the Junior Art School, and was later enrolled in the...
, later the wife of Lennon, painted a silhouette of him on the wall, which is also still there.
The Quarrymen played a series of seven Saturday night concerts in The Casbah for 15 shillings each, starting on 29 August to October 1959, featuring Brown, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, but without a drummer, or a PA
Public address
A public address system is an electronic amplification system with a mixer, amplifier and loudspeakers, used to reinforce a sound source, e.g., a person giving a speech, a DJ playing prerecorded music, and distributing the sound throughout a venue or building.Simple PA systems are often used in...
system. The opening night concert was attended by about 300 local teenagers, but as the cellar had no air-conditioning, and people were dancing, the temperature rose until it became hard to breathe. As there was no amplification, Lennon later persuaded Mona to hire a young amateur guitar player called Harry to play a short set before The Quarrymen, but this was only so they could use his 40-Watt amplifier
Amplifier
Generally, an amplifier or simply amp, is a device for increasing the power of a signal.In popular use, the term usually describes an electronic amplifier, in which the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a current. In audio applications, amplifiers drive the loudspeakers used in PA systems to...
. After the success of the first night, Mona gave The Quarrymen a residency, and paid the whole group £3 a night. Every Saturday thereafter, queues lengthened onto the street, which was financially good for Mona, as she charged one shilling admission on top of the annual membership fee.
Pete was studying at the Collegiate Grammar School when he decided he wanted to be in a music group, so Mona bought him a drum kit from Blackler's music store and Best formed his own band; The Black Jacks. Chas Newby joined the group, as did Ken Brown, but only after he had left The Quarrymen. The reason for Brown's exit from the group was that he turned up on the seventh Saturday night of The Quarrymen residency at The Casbah with the flu
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
, so Mona ordered him upstairs to the Best's living room to rest. This caused a massive quarrel with the rest of the group when Mona came to pay them, as they wanted Brown's money to be shared amongst the three of them, as Brown had not played. Mona refused, so The Quarrymen angrily cancelled their residency and stormed out. Colin Manley from The Remo Four was also given a booking to play in the club, which was the only venue that young amateur bands could play at the time. Other groups like The Searchers
The Searchers (band)
The Searchers are an English beat group, who emerged as part of the 1960s Merseybeat scene along with The Beatles, The Fourmost, The Merseybeats, The Swinging Blue Jeans, and Gerry & The Pacemakers....
and Gerry & The Pacemakers
Gerry & the Pacemakers
Gerry and the Pacemakers were a British beat music group prominent during the 1960s. In common with The Beatles, they came from Liverpool, were managed by Brian Epstein and recorded by George Martin. They are most remembered for being the first act to reach number one in the UK Singles Chart with...
later played in the club. The Black Jacks became the resident group at The Casbah, although The Quarrymen occasionally played there again and often visited. It was in The Casbah Club that Lennon and McCartney convinced Sutcliffe to buy a Hofner
Höfner
Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of musical instruments, with one division that manufactures guitars and basses, and another that manufactures other string instruments....
President bass guitar and join The Quarrymen.
Even though the membership list later spiralled to over a thousand, Mona closed the club on 24 June 1962, with The Beatles as the last group to perform. In 2006, the Best's ex-coal cellar was given a "Grade II listed building status", after being recommended by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
. It has now been opened as a tourist attraction in Liverpool, along with McCartney and Lennon's previous homes.
The Beatles
Brian Epstein
Brian Samuel Epstein , was an English music entrepreneur, and is best known for being the manager of The Beatles up until his death. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Remo Four & The Cyrkle...
later wanted to manage the group, and Mona was asked for her advice, and although she had her own plans for the group, she concluded that Epstein would be good for them over time. After The Beatles signed a management contract with Epstein, Mona did not relinquish her control over them, as they had been using her telephone to call agents, and frequently slept over in her living room between concerts. She constantly harassed Epstein about the quality of their bookings, and his management of them, which led to Epstein never referring to her by name, but always calling her "that woman". One musician commented that if Mona said it was a Sunday when it was Tuesday, one would be forced to agree with her.
After Best, McCartney and Harrison were deported
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
from Hamburg in November 1960, Mona made numerous phone calls to Hamburg to recover the group's equipment, which she eventually managed to do. Mona wrote to Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
in 1961, in an attempt to get the group a television appearance on the programme called "People And Places", but was sent a letter telling her that they would contact her in the future. After her son had been dismissed from The Beatles on 16 August 1962, Mona was later quoted by biographer Hunter Davies
Hunter Davies
Edward Hunter Davies is a prolific British author, journalist and broadcaster, perhaps best known for writing the only authorised biography of The Beatles.- Early life :...
as saying:
Later years
In 1967, when The Beatles had to pose for the photograph for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club BandSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
cover, Lennon asked Mona if he could borrow the war medals her father had been given in India to wear for the photo session. Although still upset at the way her son was dismissed from The Beatles, Mona agreed, and the medals were then returned, along with a Cash Box
Cash Box magazine
Cashbox magazine was a weekly publication devoted to the music and coin-operated machine industries in the USA which was published from July 1942 to November 16, 1996...
trophy that is in the letter 'L' of THE BEATLES flower-sign on the cover. Mona never opened another club, or engaged in another business venture, although she did have paying guests at her house, which she shared with her bed-ridden mother and her sons after she and Best parted. Mona died of a heart attack 9 September 1988, after a long illness.