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The Quarrymen

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Also known as the Quarry Men, The Blackjacks, Johnny and the Moondogs

British skiffle/rock and roll group, formed by John Lennon in Liverpool in 1956

Key facts

Also known as
Johnny and the Moondogs Japage 3 Long John and the Silver Beatles
Origin
Liverpool , England
Genres
Skiffle rock and roll
Years active
1956–1960 1994–1995 1997–present
Labels
Griffin Quarrymen Records Sony BMG
Spinoffs
The Beatles
Members
Colin Hanton Rod Davis David Bedford Henry Duff Lowe
Past members
John Lennon Eric Griffiths Pete Shotton Bill Smith Nigel Walley Ivan Vaughan Len Garry Paul McCartney George Harrison John Duff Lowe Ken Brown Stuart Sutcliffe Chas Newby
Website
originalquarrymen .co .uk

via Wikipedia infobox

~33 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The Quarrymen (also written as "the Quarry Men") are a British skiffle and rock and roll band, formed by John Lennon in Liverpool in 1956, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Originally consisting of Lennon and several school friends, the Quarrymen took their name from a line in the school song of their school, the Quarry Bank High School. Lennon's mother, Julia, taught her son to play the banjo, showed Lennon and Eric Griffiths how to tune their guitars in a similar way to the banjo, and taught them simple chords and songs.

Lennon founded a skiffle group with his close friend Pete Shotton and after a week of gaining new members, they named themselves the Quarrymen. The Quarrymen played at parties, school dances, cinemas and amateur skiffle contests before Paul McCartney joined in early July 1957. George Harrison joined in early 1958 at McCartney's recommendation, though Lennon initially resisted because he felt Harrison (14 when he was introduced to Lennon) was too young. McCartney and Harrison attended the Liverpool Institute.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Quarrymen” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.