I am the Paulrus
Nov 27, 2009, 03:37 PM
The Beatles: New John Lennon photo at St Peter's Church fete uncovered after more than 50 years
Nov 23 2009
by Laura Davis
Liverpool Daily Post
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-life-features/liverpool-special-features/2009/11/23/new-john-lennon-photo-at-st-peter-s-church-fete-uncovered-after-more-than-50-years-92534-25228716/
http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/ldp2/nov2009/0/2/john-lennon-and-the-quarrymen-in-woolton-during-st-peter-s-church-fete-in-1957-photo-james-davis-111140646.jpg
Newly discovered photo of The Quarrymen (John Lennon is 3rd from the right behind the drum kit) on the back of a truck/lorry headed to the St. Peter’s Church Fete, July 6, 1957.
FOR millions of people around the world, the Liverpool suburb of Woolton exists as the site of a pivotal moment in musical history. On July 6, 1957, 16-year-old John Lennon was introduced to 15-year-old Paul McCartney by a mutual friend.
The story goes that the younger boy showed Lennon how to tune his guitar and their journey to become the world’s best-known band had begun.
In the years to come, their music would cause overwrought teenage girls to faint and adults to weep.
It would be played at weddings and funerals, and would inspire countless other musicians, books, works of art and films, including Sam Taylor-Woods’s Nowhere Boy being premiered in Liverpool today.
But, on that day in 1957, they were just two regular lads at a church fair that could have been taking place in almost any small township in the country.
This is demonstrated in a charming collection of photographs unearthed by Rod Davis, a member of Lennon’s first band, The Quarrymen, and shown on these pages.
His father, James Davis, was a keen amateur photographer and, for a time, official photographer to the Woolton Rose Queen event, which was part of the fete.
After he died in the late 70s, thousands of his negatives were stored in tea chests in his children’s lofts.
When Rod began scanning them into his computer, he uncovered a unique portrait of Woolton in the 1950s – rose queens posing shyly in the field behind St Peter’s Church, women on the cake stall dishing out slabs of Victoria sponge on china plates, village streets devoid of cars.
And, on one, a fresh-faced Lennon in a checked shirt, singing with his eyes closed on the back of a lorry.
“As I held the next strip up to the light, the distinctive square edge of what could have been a tea chest bass caught my eye, but as it was in negative the details were impossible to make out,” says Rod.
“I fed the strip of film into the scanner and waited for the software to process the image.
“My apprehension turned to delight when, there on the back of the lorry, were The Quarrymen.”
The image, which James has discarded before developing it, had not been seen in nearly 52 years.
It depicted the traditional beginning of the annual St Peter’s Church Fete – a procession of lorries carrying bands, Brownie packs and children in fancy dress.
This was followed by the crowning of the rose queen, a young girl chosen from those who attended the Sunday School, and other attractions including police dog demonstrations and performances by the Band of the Cheshire Yeomanry.
The church fete was a highlight of the calendar for a sleepy township, which was, at that time, surrounded by parkland and fields and connected to Liverpool city centre by bus.
Brian Daugherty, who grew up in Woolton in the late-50s and 60s, said: “When someone jogged my memory, I could remember cows being driven to the dairy next to the Post Office, which I had forgotten about until then.
“I believe they were kept up on Quarry Street somewhere,” he says.
Brian now lives near Portsmouth, but has such happy memories of the town that he runs a website about its history.
“At the bottom of our road, was ‘The Field’, an untended and overgrown area which obviously had a certain attraction for us kids, although I don’t think our parents were too happy at us going down there.
“It had a bit of a sinister reputation,” he recalls.
“A large bonfire was held there every Guy Fawkes Day.”
BRIAN also remembers the shopping streets, which like most high streets at the time, were filled with independent stores.
“General childhood memories include mundane things like going into Irwins, which became Tescos, and always receiving a biscuit from the staff from the large tins they still used to sell them from.”
Like most people in Woolton, he knew little of John Lennon before his worldwide success.
“I later went to Quarry Bank (Lennon’s secondary school) and used to cycle past his house every day to school without being aware that it was he who lived there.”
Nov 23 2009
by Laura Davis
Liverpool Daily Post
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-life-features/liverpool-special-features/2009/11/23/new-john-lennon-photo-at-st-peter-s-church-fete-uncovered-after-more-than-50-years-92534-25228716/
http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/ldp2/nov2009/0/2/john-lennon-and-the-quarrymen-in-woolton-during-st-peter-s-church-fete-in-1957-photo-james-davis-111140646.jpg
Newly discovered photo of The Quarrymen (John Lennon is 3rd from the right behind the drum kit) on the back of a truck/lorry headed to the St. Peter’s Church Fete, July 6, 1957.
FOR millions of people around the world, the Liverpool suburb of Woolton exists as the site of a pivotal moment in musical history. On July 6, 1957, 16-year-old John Lennon was introduced to 15-year-old Paul McCartney by a mutual friend.
The story goes that the younger boy showed Lennon how to tune his guitar and their journey to become the world’s best-known band had begun.
In the years to come, their music would cause overwrought teenage girls to faint and adults to weep.
It would be played at weddings and funerals, and would inspire countless other musicians, books, works of art and films, including Sam Taylor-Woods’s Nowhere Boy being premiered in Liverpool today.
But, on that day in 1957, they were just two regular lads at a church fair that could have been taking place in almost any small township in the country.
This is demonstrated in a charming collection of photographs unearthed by Rod Davis, a member of Lennon’s first band, The Quarrymen, and shown on these pages.
His father, James Davis, was a keen amateur photographer and, for a time, official photographer to the Woolton Rose Queen event, which was part of the fete.
After he died in the late 70s, thousands of his negatives were stored in tea chests in his children’s lofts.
When Rod began scanning them into his computer, he uncovered a unique portrait of Woolton in the 1950s – rose queens posing shyly in the field behind St Peter’s Church, women on the cake stall dishing out slabs of Victoria sponge on china plates, village streets devoid of cars.
And, on one, a fresh-faced Lennon in a checked shirt, singing with his eyes closed on the back of a lorry.
“As I held the next strip up to the light, the distinctive square edge of what could have been a tea chest bass caught my eye, but as it was in negative the details were impossible to make out,” says Rod.
“I fed the strip of film into the scanner and waited for the software to process the image.
“My apprehension turned to delight when, there on the back of the lorry, were The Quarrymen.”
The image, which James has discarded before developing it, had not been seen in nearly 52 years.
It depicted the traditional beginning of the annual St Peter’s Church Fete – a procession of lorries carrying bands, Brownie packs and children in fancy dress.
This was followed by the crowning of the rose queen, a young girl chosen from those who attended the Sunday School, and other attractions including police dog demonstrations and performances by the Band of the Cheshire Yeomanry.
The church fete was a highlight of the calendar for a sleepy township, which was, at that time, surrounded by parkland and fields and connected to Liverpool city centre by bus.
Brian Daugherty, who grew up in Woolton in the late-50s and 60s, said: “When someone jogged my memory, I could remember cows being driven to the dairy next to the Post Office, which I had forgotten about until then.
“I believe they were kept up on Quarry Street somewhere,” he says.
Brian now lives near Portsmouth, but has such happy memories of the town that he runs a website about its history.
“At the bottom of our road, was ‘The Field’, an untended and overgrown area which obviously had a certain attraction for us kids, although I don’t think our parents were too happy at us going down there.
“It had a bit of a sinister reputation,” he recalls.
“A large bonfire was held there every Guy Fawkes Day.”
BRIAN also remembers the shopping streets, which like most high streets at the time, were filled with independent stores.
“General childhood memories include mundane things like going into Irwins, which became Tescos, and always receiving a biscuit from the staff from the large tins they still used to sell them from.”
Like most people in Woolton, he knew little of John Lennon before his worldwide success.
“I later went to Quarry Bank (Lennon’s secondary school) and used to cycle past his house every day to school without being aware that it was he who lived there.”