John Lennon meets Paul McCartney (55 years ago today!)

On the afternoon of 6 July 1957 the Quarrymen skiffle group played at the garden fete of St Peter's Church, Woolton, Liverpool.

The performance took place on a stage in a field behind the church. In the band were John Lennon (vocals, guitar), Eric Griffiths (guitar), Colin Hanton (drums), Rod Davies (banjo), Pete Shotton (washboard) and Len Garry (tea chest bass).

The group arrived on the back of a lorry. As well as music, there were craft and cake stalls, games of hoop-la, police dog demonstrations and the traditional crowning of the Rose Queen. The fete was a highlight of the year for the residents of the sleepy Liverpool district.

That evening the group were due to play again, minus Colin Hanton, this time at the Grand Dance in the church hall on the other side of the road. They were due on stage at 8pm, and admission to the show, in which the Quarrymen alternated on stage with the George Edwards Band, was two shillings.

While setting up their equipment to play, the Quarrymen's sometime tea-chest bass player, Ivan Vaughan, introduced the band to one of his classmates from Liverpool Institute, the 15-year-old Paul McCartney.

This historic occasion was the first time McCartney met John Lennon, a year his senior. McCartney wore a white jacket with silver flecks, and a pair of black drainpipe trousers.

The pair chatted for a few minutes, and McCartney showed Lennon how to tune a guitar - the instruments owned by Lennon and Griffiths were in G banjo tuning. McCartney then sang Eddie Cochran's Twenty Flight Rock and Gene Vincent's Be-Bop-A-Lula, along with a medley of songs by Little Richard.

One thing that blew my mind is that the Garden Fete was a celebration of the 750th anniversary of Liverpool being granted its charter.

One of the things I am grateful for in the timing of my birth (1952) is that I was the perfect age to be a Beatles fan.

There is simply no way of explaining to someone what is was like to go down to the local Kresge’s to pick up a brand new Beatles album and being completely blown away at how it was like nothing that had ever come before it.

Nowadays you are just presented with their catalog fully formed with no context or sense of place.

The TV show Mad Men brought that home recently with an episode where the ad guys are looking to get to the “yutes” by adding a Beatles or Beatles-like song to a commercial. Don Draper says...”They all sound alike....”

He goes home to his new, young bride who says, “Listen to this” and puts on Revolver, second side, last cut and “Tomorrow Never Knows” starts playing through the headphones.

Imagine...from “I Want To Hold Your Hand” to “Tomorrow Never Knows” in three years!

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