The Beatles: The True Beginnings (Paperback)

~ (Author), Pete Best (Author), Rory Best (Author) "It was in India, at a big band concert, that Mona first realised she had a passion for live music..." (more)
Key Phrases: Pete Best, The Quarrymen, Ken Brown (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Handsomely presented..., the book informs the Beatles' story with an unlikely ffamily history and a vivid portrait of Liverpool's vibrant music scene in the late Fifties and early Sixties." -- Review

"Handsomely presented...it informs the Beatles' story with an unlikely family history...vivid portrait of Liverpool's vibrant music scene..." -- Rolling Stone --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Praise for The Beatles
 
“I think it’s a good idea to let people know about the Casbah. They know about the Cavern, they know about some of those things, but the Casbah was the place where all that started. We helped decorate it and stuff. We looked upon it as our own personal club.”---Sir Paul McCartney

“Handsomely presented and written in clean, lucid prose, the book informs the Beatles’ story with an unlikely family history and a vivid portrait of Liverpool’s vibrant music scene in the late ’50s and early ’60s.”---Rolling Stone
 
“Enticing. Plenty to enlighten even trivia experts.”---Bookpage
 
“A wonderful book.”---Mail on Sunday (UK)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (March 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312319266
• ISBN-13: 978-0312319267
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 9.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #809,833 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Dream Book, February 23, 2004

By	Heidi Crabtree (Kennesaw, GA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Beatles: The True Beginnings (Hardcover)

I love this book! Makes me want to fly to Liverpool now and visit. Pete Best, who was drummer for the Beatles before they kicked him out with no explanation, gives us a fabulous treat. His mother ran the Casbah Club in Liverpool in the family home's basement. After Pete was booted out, the club sort of died down and was closed. It remained sealed up for many, many years, until it was opened. Original murals done by the Beatles still on the walls, microphones, and other items were found, and the club reopened to people who wish to come and see the only remaining original club, with even the original walls! Let the Cavern try to claim that! Color photos, inside stories, more make this a sensational book. Beatle fans, Merseybeat fans, music historians, Scousers, etc...BUY IT!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great combo of art and history, May 16, 2003

By	A O Cazola (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Beatles: The True Beginnings (Hardcover)

The Beatles: True Beginnings is the latest installment in the ever-growing genre of Beatles histories and essential collectibles for diehard fans. Where some of these, though, seem like quick cash grabs, this book is truly an incedible document of the Beatles early years at the Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool.

Filled with hundreds of beautiful archival photos of the lads and brand new, full-colour arts shots of memorabilia and the club's interior, The Beatles: True Beginnings is the authoritative work on the club that launched the Mersey Beat.

For the first time in forty years, Beatles fans can finally get an inside look at the club where the Beatles became the world's greatest rock band. Originally started in 1959 by Mona Best (mother of former Beatles drummer Pete Best), the Casbah Coffee Club was an underground rock club in the heart of Liverpool where everyone who was anyone went to see the city's greatest bands.

Written by the Best family, this new book is both the story of a remarkable woman and a celebration of forty years of Beatles history, from their earliest days as The Quarrymen up to their crowning as the kings of rock. Alternating between illustrated narrative and beautifully shot, full-colour art photographs, The Beatles: True Beginnings is an essential part of any Beatles fan's library.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cradle of Anglo-Rock History, August 10, 2005

By	BeatleBangs1964 (United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Beatles: The True Beginnings (Hardcover)

A fascinating book about the inception of the Beatles, or "pre-Beatle" era, if you will. The beautiful archival photographs will certainly delight all readers as well as the memorabilia. Readers will certainly get a feel for early-1960s Liverpool (1960-62) and the environment in which the Beatles flourished.

Thanks to this book, fans can actually see the club where the Beatles' fame was soon launched. The world's number one band cut their musical teeth in the Casbah, owned and run by drummer Pete Best's mother, Mona Best. The club opened in 1959 when the Quarrymen-Silver Beatles were coming into their own. This underground rock club was the precursor to its American counterparts such as the Hard Rock Cafe and the Fillmore East and Fillmore West, to name three.

This fresh perspective of Beatle history includes Mona Best's story as well as other members of the Best family. Pete Best, the Beatles' first drummer was unceremoniously ousted from the band in August of 1962. Ringo Starr replaced him and the rest is, well, history. Fans will undoubtedly feel as if they are watching the Beatles evolve from relative local obscurity into the musical juggernaut they became and remain to this day.