| Tommy Moore | |
 | |
| Born | 12 September 1931 |
| Died | 29 September 1981 |
| Occupation | Fork-lift Driver |
Thomas Henry "Tommy" Moore (12 September 1931 - 29 September 1981) was a Liverpool-born drummer who briefly played with the Beatles as their first drummer in May and June 1960, primarily during their tour of Scotland backing Johnny Gentle.
Background and Personality[]
In their authorized biography, the Beatles claimed to remember little about Moore, except that "they went to his flat to get him and that he'd been living on the dole".[1] Decades later, George Harrison would describe him as "a funny kind of guy who played with a lot of different bands", remembering he would "show up for a while and then not show up again",[2] so Moore may not have played every Beatles show that took place during his tenure. Moore's job was driving a forklift truck at the Garston Bottle Company factory. Some have written that he played with a modern jazz band, held his drumsticks through his fingers in the conventional manner, and idolized Jack Parnell, a drummer-bandleader recorded by George Martin for Parlophone.[3] However, he has also been described as sitting in "on drums at Sam Leach's club and who, despite owning his own full set, belonged to no group permanently".[4]
Moore was brought to the band by Allan Williams, whom the Beatles had asked to start helping them. Williams learned of Moore through Brian Cassar, singer of Cass and the Cassanovas, who following his departure would become the Big Three.[3] Moore recounted having rehearsals with the Beatles at William's club, the Jacaranda, as well as at the flat at 3 Gambier Terrace that John Lennon shared with Stuart Sutcliffe. In particular, Paul McCartney was impressed with Moore's ability to play "the slow, skipping beat of the Everly Brothers' song 'Cathy's Clown'".[4] Moore would claim Williams booked them to perform at the Jacaranda for "[a] bottle of Coke and a plate of beans on toast".[5] Williams however would later dispute this, saying that he paid the band the going rate of £8-£10 per performance.[6]
Described as "a small, worried-looking individual",[4] Moore was a decade older than his new bandmates and lacked the schooling the others shared. While tensions were high throughout the band's tour of Scotland, Lennon was particularly vicious to Moore. Williams attributes this to Moore being "a simple man, not very bright, and... much older than them" while Lennon "had no time for anybody who wasn't on his wavelength".[7] However, Sutcliffe—whom Lennon also treated terribly, despite their close friendship—reportedly extended sympathy to Moore,[8] who would remember the two of them sitting next to each other on the train back from Scotland since Sutcliffe "was the only one of them [Moore] could stand by that time".[9] Moore would later describe how Lennon and McCartney were "always at it, trying to outdo each other", Harrison was mostly silent, and Sutcliffe was the receiver of a great deal of abuse due to his lack of musical talent.[4]
Parnes Audition[]
Williams invited the Beatles to an audition he had arranged in front of the pop impresario Larry Parnes for a potential tour backing his singer Billy Fury. Numerous Liverpool bands gathered on 10 May at the empty Wyvern Social Club, which Williams was remodeling into a venture called the Blue Angel. Moore knew he would be coming to the rehearsal late after leaving his job, never having met any of the band.[10] Others report a need for Moore to collect some drum equipment at the Casanova Club.[11] The Beatles begged to go on last, but when Parnes could wait no longer, they began performing with Johnny Hutchison of Cass and the Cassanovas, who openly disdained them. The Beatles were photographed by Cheniston Roland playing with "Hutch" as well as with Moore, who eventually arrived.[10]
In a 1988 interview with Bob Azurdia, Parnes claimed to have told John Lennon that the band needed "another drummer, somebody with a little more drive and bash. He's a good drummer but he is not for your outfit". Stuart Sutcliffe's sister Millie recalled in 1981 that her brother related that Parnes had said that "the bass guitarist and the percussion was weak".[12] Bill Harry, however, disputed this characterization of Sutcliffe's playing, saying Parnes was primarily irritated by Moore's tardiness.[13] Others would also assert that it was "the worried, rather elderly-looking man who arrived halfway through the audition" that was the main source of Parnes' objections.[14] After this rehearsal, it was unclear if Moore was actually the band's drummer, and he did not appear at their 14 May engagement for Brian Kelly at Lathom Hall in Seaforth.[15]
Scotland Tour[]
When the Beatles were offered the opportunity to back Parnes' singer Johnny Gentle for a week-long tour of Scotland beginning 20 May, Moore had to be coaxed from his job at the Garston Bottle Company—which paid less than the £15 on offer for the tour—over the protestations of the woman he was seeing at the time. Moore may have played a rehearsal with the group at the Gambier Terrace flat on 19 May before taking the train to Alloa, Scotland the following day, each band member carrying pieces of Moore's drum kit.[16]
Throughout the tour, Moore signed his name professionally as "Thomas Moore, drums", including for a set signed by Gentle and the Beatles immediately after a car accident on 22 May, when Moore was hit in the face and seriously injured, including concussion and damage to his teeth. Two teenage girls, who noticed the band advertisements on the side of the van, grabbed their autograph books and collected the first set of Beatles autographs.[17] Philip Norman would claim that Gentle was intoxicated, or at least hungover, at the time of the crash.[18] Afterward, Moore was taken by ambulance to Chalmers Hospital in Banff while the others continued to Fraserburgh for a show the next day. By mid-afternoon on the 23rd, someone retrieved Moore for the evening's show, which he played with his face swollen and inflamed, Lennon mocking him the whole time.[19]
In general, Moore would have only negative memories of the Beatles' time in Scotland. In addition to the automobile accident, he recalled having little idea where they were during the tour, a distillery being the only sign that they had reached the Highlands. After arriving at Inverness too early to be admitted to their hotel room, the band walked "around the harbo[u]r next to the fishing boats", where Moore realized he was hungry and sick of his bandmates, especially Lennon. Upon returning to his home on Smithdown Lane after the tour, his girlfriend chastised him for earning only "[a] couple of quid" instead of working at the Garston factory.[20]
Final Shows and Later Life[]
Moore would only play with the Beatles for perhaps two weeks after their return from Scotland,[21] although he is known to have performed with them at a show on 2 June at Neston Institute, the band's first headlining and advertised performance. This show led to a write-up in the Birkenhead News and Advertiser (Heswalll and Neston edition) on 11 June, which mentions Moore as the drummer in this first ever review of the Beatles.[22] Moore would later describe the chaotic nature of these early Beatles shows in which his unsecured bass drum would "go rolling away across the stage" during fast numbers like Chuck Berry songs and how Harrison would be forced to repair the band's malfunctioning amplifiers.[18]
Moore left the Beatles by failing to arrive for a show, likely on 11 June. When Williams and the band went to Moore's home in Toxteth, they were berated by his girlfriend, who informed them that Moore had taken a steady 3 pm-11 pm shift at the factory. Driving to Moore's work place, he confirmed that he was out of the band, leaving the Beatles drummer-less for the night's show.[23] However, he recalled playing with them one more time after, perhaps at the Jacaranda Coffee Bar on 13 June.[24]
In an interview with the Daily Express printed 3 March 1970, Moore stated he quit because he was "pining for security" as he was approaching thirty years old, and that his only mementos of his time with the Beatles were drum sticks "chewed and splintered by the family's pet collie".[23] He would claim he never received back all the parts of his drum kit and some may have been integrated into a makeshift kit constructed by Paul McCartney, nominally for his brother Mike to play.[25] Moore died in 1981 at the age of 50, having given "only a couple of unchallenging interviews" about his time with the Beatles,[26] with whom he played about a dozen shows.
List of Performances[]
- 20 May - Town Hall, Alloa
- 21 May - Northern Meeting Ballroom, Inverness
- 23 May - Dalrymple Hall, Fraserburgh
- 25 May - St Thomas' Hall, Keith
- 26 May - Town Hall, Forres
- 27 May - Regal Ballroom, Nairn
- 28 May - Rescue Hall, Peterhead
- 30 May - Jacaranda Coffee Bar, Liverpool [uncertain]
- 2 June - The Institute, Neston, Wirral
- 4 June - Grosvenor Ballroom, Liscard, Wallasey [uncertain]
- 6 June - Grosvenor Ballroom, Liscard, Wallasey [uncertain]
- 9 June - The Institute, Neston, Wirral [uncertain]
- 13 June - Jacaranda Coffee Bar, Liverpool [uncertain][27]
| ||||||||||||
- ↑ Davies, Hunter. The Beatles, with a new introduction. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009, pg. 65.
- ↑ The Beatles. The Beatles Anthology, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2000, pg. 44.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pp. 613-614.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Norman, Philip. Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation, revised and updated. New York: Fireside, 2005, pg. 69.
- ↑ Norman, Philip. Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation, revised and updated. New York: Fireside, 2005, pg. 70.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pg. 656.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pp. 628-629.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pg. 635.
- ↑ Norman, Philip. Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation, revised and updated. New York: Fireside, 2005, pg. 75.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pp. 614-616.
- ↑ Norman, Philip. Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation, revised and updated. New York: Fireside, 2005, pg. 72.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pg. 617.
- ↑ Kane, Larry. When They Were Boys: The True Story of the Beatles' Rise to the Top. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2013, pg. 97.
- ↑ Norman, Philip. Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation, revised and updated. New York: Fireside, 2005, pp. 72-73.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pp. 618-619.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pp. 621-625.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pg. 630.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Norman, Philip. Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation, revised and updated. New York: Fireside, 2005, pg. 74.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pg. 631.
- ↑ Norman, Philip. Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation, revised and updated. New York: Fireside, 2005, pg. 75.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pg. 636.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pg. 648.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pg. 653.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Chronicle. New York: Harmony Books, 1992, pg. 28.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pg. 669.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. All These Years: Tune In, Extended Special Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2013, pg. 624n.
- ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Chronicle. New York: Harmony Books, 1992, pp. 26-28.