The Quarrymen

The Quarry Men (sometimes Quarrymen) were a little-known skiffle group formed around Liverpool, England in March 1957 by John Lennon. They are most famous as the band that eventually evolved into th

The Quarry Men (sometimes Quarrymen) were a little-known skiffle group formed around Liverpool, England in March 1957 by John Lennon. They are most famous as the band that eventually evolved into the hugely popular rock band The Beatles.

When John Lennon decided that he wanted to play music, he first recruited his best friend, Pete Shotton to his embryonic group. Lennon was to be the singer and guitarist. Shotton was relegated to washboard, a common skiffle instrument. After just one week as the Black Jacks, they renamed themselves the "Quarry Men," after a line in their school song at Quarry Bank Grammar School and a week later they recruited a friend from that school, Bill Smith to play tea chest bass, despite Shotton's protestations as he had recently been involved in a fight with Smith.